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Words to live byNobody needs to be told how to use the lounge chair. "Users" of any age, background, or degree of sophistication can immediately comprehend it: take it in, in almost all of its details, at a single glance. It is self-revealing to the point of transparency, and the same can be said of most domestic furniture: you lie on a bed, put books and DVDs and tchotchkes on shelves, laptops and flowers and dinner on tables. Did anyone ever have to tell you this? The same cannot be said of the iPod - which, remember, is one of the best-thought-out and comparatively simple digital artifacts ever developed, demonstrating market-leading insight into users and what they want to do with the things they buy. Take off your power user hat, try to imagine life without the chops you've earned over the course of your involvement with these complex artifacts, and you'll see that to people encountering an iPod for the first time it's not obvious what it does, or how to get it to do that. It may not even be obvious how to turn the thing on. You don't have to configure the chair, or set preferences. You needn't worry about compatible file formats. You can take it out of one room or house and drop it into another, and it still works exactly the same way as it did before, with no adjustment. It never reminds you that a new version of its firmware is available, and that certain of its features will not be available until you do choose to upgrade. As much as I love the iPod, none of this can be said for it. Instant CongressSubscribe Buttons                    | ||
Martin Luther King
I have recently been reading Taylor Branch's great pulitzer prize winning three part biography of King ("Parting the Waters", "Pillar of Fire", "At Canaan's Edge") Branch portrays King as one of the greatest of all americans, but one who was far from perfect.
King, a deeply religious southern baptist minister, is portrayed as strongly sexist, as were Ralph Abernathy and most of his other fellow ministers in the SCLC. He believed women had specific roles (keeping the home, raising children). He would never have allowed Coretta Scott King, in spite of her college education, to have her own career outside his home during their marriage. Her job was to have and raise his kids, and play the traditional role of the wife of the pastor at the church.
In the chapter on the famous 1963 march on Washington, where King made his "I have a dream" speech, it is pointed out that while King and his fellow ministers marched at the head of the procession, arms locked together defiantly, he did not allow the wifes of the ministers and other prominent women of the movement to march up front with him. The women were made to march separately in the back of the procession somewhere, as a group. Because their role was not to bring attention to themselves, but to be discreet and let the men lead.
King met numerous times at the White House with John F. Kennedy. King dined in the White House residence with JFK and Jackie Kennedy. He never bought Coretta with him to the White House or to other high level social occasions. Coretta never met the Kennedys ever, in spite of their repeated requests to meet her. Why? Because King wanted his wife at home.
Also it is pointed out that the evil J. Edgar Hoover wiretapped King continuosly and found out he had a longterm mistress in New York and women in other cities. King was clearly a typical man of that era.
King was also enlightened in a lot of other ways. One of his best friends/closest advisors-- the one who organized the famous march-- was openly gay, a fact that many fellow ministers complained to him about