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LIFe ADVICe<br />

human Behavior<br />

What are some stupid things that<br />

smart people do?<br />

Lee Semel, http://leesemel.com<br />

Wow, there are so many. Here are but a few of my favorite<br />

stupid things smart people tend to do:<br />

• Ignoring the importance of design and style - When the<br />

iPod originally came out, technical people complained<br />

about its lack of features and perceived high price ("ooh,<br />

who cares about another MP3 player; I can go buy one<br />

at Best Buy for $50." In the meantime, it was so cool and<br />

easy to use that normal people went out in droves to buy it.<br />

• Using terrible tools, and taking pride in their awfulness<br />

- especially common with programmers, who take pride<br />

in using programming languages and text editors that<br />

have been designed by programmers, not updated since<br />

the 1970s, and never touched by anyone with a modicum<br />

of design sense. They believe that mastering arcane, overcomplicated<br />

commands and processes are a mark of pride,<br />

rather than a waste of time. I will refrain from singling<br />

out specific programming languages and tools here, because<br />

smart people also like to get caught up in pointless<br />

flame wars about this sort of thing.<br />

93

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