I had books from the 80s written at an elementary or middle school level that better explained complex computing concepts than the textbooks I had to study in college.

I'm not kidding. I lead a study group, because I was basically sleeping through the classes and some of my friends were struggling. So I lead a study group to help out.

I brought in these books I had read when I was a kid, xeroxed off copies of the relevant illustrations and explanations for everyone.

The effect this had on the average grades in the class was so pronounced that my teacher asked me what I had done.

I brought him the same books, and he looked shocked.

You know that slightly wistful, vaguely watery look people get in their eyes when something they care about is done really well, but in a way that makes a lot of effort they expend useless?

It was that. He started hunting down vintage copies online, and incorporating them in to his lectures.

And, like, I get that I was a weird kid. I read reference books and maps and stuff for fun.

But I struggled through the bland and boring books because I'd seen how useful reference books could be, and I'd learned that mostly through these very thoughtful books on computers.

When I get settled in to the new house, I'll pull out those books and take some pictures. I imagine many of them are on Archive.org already.

My point is (and has been, for weeks) that we are ignoring the users.

We used to care about users. We wanted users to adopt hardware and software. We wanted users to be productive and secure.

Vendors cared about the user experience.

Now, everything is user hostile. Everything is trying to screw you, or spy on you, or just isn't engineered with your safety in mind.

We, you and I, have a chance to fix this. We, you and I, can rebuild and repair.

We can:
- Make user friendly (not user hostile) devices and software
- Write documentation
- Refuse to buy tech that *we* can render safe to use, but that the average user can't
- Support people that do things correctly financially whenever possible.

We can 'vote with our dollar'

We can write to our congresscritters about the DMCA (a law that is wielded by the likes of Lexmark and John Deere and Microsoft to keep their devices user hostile by rendering it illegal to install your own software.)

We can normalize the idea that reading documentation is sometimes required, and in the process, help folks bridge the gap in computer literacy.

I own several kindles, for example. I've bought them all used, so I don't feel bad about owning them, but I wouldn't buy one new.

I purchase cheap used android devices, root them, and give them to friends in need. I write documentation. I build dumb simple scripts to automate common computer tasks for people that need to perform those tasks, and only those tasks, and are uninterested in performing any other tasks.