A Case for Understanding how Tools Work

I work in IT support. I answer requests and fix broken computers. I work with intelligent, capable people. I do work on problems I have never seen before on the regular. I am, also, babysitting a bunch of people who have no idea how the tools they use daily work. They know how to use them, to some degree, but they don't know them. They don't understand the capabilities of the technology they have access to.

I don't mean to complain. I am simply in awe of a mode of thought that just doesn't occur in my own mind. I am a curious person by nature. I want to learn as much as I can about as many things as I can. To that end, I feel like the only means to get the most out of a tool is to understand, even on a basic level, how the tool works. By tools here, I not only mean in the computer sense, but also in the sense of any object a person interacts with in order to accomplish a task. Some tools are simple. A hammer is a hunk of mass intended to impart a heavy force into a surface, be that the head of a nail or a sheet of silver, being spun into the shape of a ring. This is not so hard to understand. The humble text editor is simple too, accepting a person's words, etching them into the silicon mind of the box that sits in front of them. Other tools, are significantly more complex. A behemoth of cast iron and polished carbide, lifting, sliding, and turning a table this way and that to allow the spinning head of a cutter to release the structure of a complex part from the metal brick that formed its source. "Real" tools can be complicated, just as the image editing software that has hundreds of options the layperson will never use, instead simply adjusting the brightness of a landscape or draining the color from a portrait.

Okay, now I sound pretentious as hell. I've gotta stop putting so many hours into Caves of Qud. ahem

So often, we simply use tools in our lives, not thinking about what they're really doing, how or why, but learning those tools can make us much more effective with them. Think of your kitchen knife. A flat blade of steel with a molded handle. How do you hold that knife? How do you move it to slice through things? Do you chop down? Do you saw back and forth? Does that change depending on what you are cutting? If you only hold the handle, try something new for me next time you cook. Pinch the blade between your forefinger and your thumb close to the handle on the dull side of the blade, then let your fingers wrap gently around the handle. Now try cutting again. Smooth, even strokes. Let the weight of the knife and your arm provide the downward force, but pull and push smoothly as you slice. I bet that knife is going to cut much better for you. That improvement comes from understanding the tool. Understanding how your body interacts with it and how it interacts with the ingredients will make it work better.

I am advocating for the same care and attention to be paid to the tools that we use when we're working with technology. Do you know how the internet works? When you type something into that address bar, what happens? On your work computer, do you know how the filesystem is laid out? Do you know how things are organized? Do you know who else has access to your files? I'm not fear mongering here, truly. Sometimes another person having access is good! If you don't run your own backups, maybe someone else is helping you out. How does a computer understand sound? Images? How is a video different from a still image? How is it the same? All these questions are important to ask. Not just because the answers can be important, but because the answers can and will make you better at using the tools. If you know how things work, even a little bit, you'll be more given to understand the limitations and strengths of a given tool.

Asking questions is a skill that I feel we so often give up on and stop working to improve. We get our jobs, we get our expertise, and we stop poking at the edges of our knowledge. We stop learning. We just accept the solutions that are given to us. I don't want to encourage conspiracy or a disregard for expert perspective. I just want to bolster peoples' curiosity. I truly believe that asking questions and being open to the answers makes a person more compassionate, more capable, and more aware of the motives, tactics, and actions of others. I feel like true earnestness is the next wave of culture on the internet and a core tenet of that is curiosity.

But now I think I'm rambling more than anything. I should leave it here. If you're curious about anything I've said here, please shoot me an email through the contact page!