Getting old is mandatory, but falling behind isn’t. My mom is pushing 70, and installed Linux Mint on her laptop last week by herself because Windows was nagging her to upgrade to 11 but her laptop didn’t have the damned Secure Boot chip. She asked me about it like two weeks ago, and I mentioned that I could help her through it once I had some time. Then a week later, she called to say she had already researched it herself and installed Linux instead of waiting on me. When I got a VR headset, she was the first in line to try it out. When I started experimenting with 3D printing, she started trying to find ways to integrate prints into her daily life instead of buying things. I set up a Home Assistant for her to be able to automate her lights.

She understands that tech is iterative, and that learning concepts is better than learning hard processes. Because processes will change from one system to the next, but concepts will largely remain the same. One microwave may have a different method to input 90 seconds, (dial to 1.5 mins, push buttons to input 90, Quick Minute button + 30 Second button, etc), but the concept of “open door, put food inside, select time” to warm something up remains the same. The actual “select time” concept isn’t a single specific process, because different microwaves will have different face panels with different ways to interact with the appliance. But all of them will allow for the same end result of running the microwave for 90 seconds.

Contrast that with my dad, who struggles to find his phone’s Settings app. He treats tech as hard processes. To stretch the same microwave example, he’s the type of person to throw up his hands in defeat and go “this is just too hard for me” the first time he encounters a microwave that has the numbers at the top of the panel instead of the bottom. Because in his mind, the concept doesn’t really exist; he just knows a “if I touch this specific area, I get {x} result” process. So as soon as anything about the process changes, it’s like he has to start re-learning things from scratch.

To bring it back to computers, he’s the type to panic when his browser’s desktop icon gets moved across the screen, because now he can’t check his email. His browser is still accessible, and if he understood the concept of a desktop icon, he would be able to intuit “oh hey it moved but it’s still there. I can probably still use it the same, and/or move it back to where I prefer having it.” But instead, his entire workflow grinds to a halt. Because he doesn’t understand the concept behind how a desktop icon works. He just knows “the specific button in the specific place is different, therefore the entire process is broken.”