On Tue, Sep 16, 2014 at 03:36:26PM -0400, Patrice Levesque wrote: > > The message is that not everyone has time to become an expert in how > > e-mail works fundamentally, and not everyone should. In fact, just > > about no one should. This is what specialization is all about, and > > like it or not our society has become extremely specialized. > > No, I'm sorry, the specialization idea does not float.
Of course it does. If someone can do X once, thereby enabling everyone else to do Y efficiently without being required to understand X, that is very obviously what should happen. Under those circumstances, forcing everyone to understand X in order to do Y is horribly inefficient, EXCEPT when X is fundamental knowledge that has general applicability (like arithmetic, for example). Forcing that requires the world do monumental wasted work, and enables many people to get it wrong, in entirely different ways. That's sheer stupidity. The world has become complicated, and without specialization it does not work, period. That's why you don't build your own home, grow/raise/kill your own food, build your own car (from the raw resources)... AND all of the things you do at work, etc.. You can maybe do some of those things, but there's no practical way you can do everything you need done in your life--unless you live on an island that produces adequate food for you to live on, very simply. Otherwise, specialization is ESSENTIAL. > E-mail has become as popular as car driving. But learning how it works fundamentally hasn't. That's why the vast majority of e-mail users use either Outlook or Firefox. It does what they need and they don't have to care about the details; the learning curve is not steep and requires nearly zero specialized knowledge. They know they need e-mail, and they DO NOT CARE how it works. Nor should they. Correspondence is a simple, every-day part of life, and sending e-mail should be as easy as writing your message on paper. Particularly since, as I've said, there's no technological reason it can not be. I'm not suggesting Mutt should be just like Outlook or Firefox--it serves a different niche (but it is indeed a niche). However I do think that it's hard to argue convincingly that Mutt users would not universally benefit if it handled more of the esoteric details for them (at least by default, still allowing advanced users to do what they want). For some of that, closer integration of the pieces is going to be required, practically speaking. -- Derek D. Martin http://www.pizzashack.org/ GPG Key ID: 0xDFBEAD02 -=-=-=-=- This message is posted from an invalid address. Replying to it will result in undeliverable mail due to spam prevention. Sorry for the inconvenience.
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