Book reading #15: The Inmates are Running the Asylum

The Inmates are Running the Asylum
Alan Cooper
Sams Publishing

Chapters 1&2:

In the first chapter we learn what the author thinks about computer scientists, and while not incorrect it is a bit of a revelation. That aside, he really does focus on a very important issue that computer scientists need to work on and that is the idea that when you have a computer embedded with something else, you still have A COMPUTER. Essentially, its the idea that despite the fact that you might have an AI or complex system that is able to make an informed decision when it boils down to it you still have a computer. He gives examples and shows that really when you peel back all the pain you really do just have a computer and not much more. He then does a rather nice job of transitioning this into the next chapter which is the idea of the big scare word in computer sceince, which is of course design. and how we are just now learning what design means and how to to it properly. In fact there are many, many teams that get together everyday to work on this concept and really dont turn out much than more advanced computers that can't do much more than anything that could before. He also talks about how because we are on the verge and really understand technology we are the best and the brightest and eventually it might be such that those who are considered extremely intelligent are those who are the most computer literate. He even goes so far as to talk about how computer literacy might be the new social norm and that we will form casts of who is and is not computer literate. It might be that technology is just a part of life but the way computers are going now and research is being done that is not an unreasonable claim.

I liked this book in these beginning chapters. His examples are good and I believe he puts in pictures where necessary, some really help, some help a little less so. The most interesting thing about this is that similar to Norman he kind of covers the same basic ideas of design and talks about a few of the same ideas, however he does them in a much more interesting way. I don't know if it is him giving better examples or not dwelling on one thing for too long but it was much more enjoyable. He does give a lot of different examples and really makes the reader want to understand by standing the examples and less so by just accepting what he says as the truth. I think the part where he tried to define computer scientists and I think for the most part this is due to the nature of computers. Sometimes they really don't seem to follow any logic and do be better job of giving headaches as opposed to being a useful input device. Dr. Stroustrup always tells us that "Computers are dumb beasts" and the unfortunate thing is that they are more dumb than beast for the most part. Once programming becomes more natural and we as a society become better at programming them this is likely to change but until that time we are still quite stuck.