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As textbook Gen X'er, I had my first computer, an Apple II+ (48K RAM!!) in 1982, did a little BASIC programming with my friends. Moved up to a Mac in College, then an AT/XT in an internship in 1988 (Lotus 2.01!). I remember that everything was just a little too hard. Just printing Landscape was a tedious chore that often crashed the computer. Thank God we don't live in those days anymore. But like Mr. Brin's automotive example of the WWII generation - it really taught us how to understand computers. We *really* wanted to harness the power, and could see the possibilites, but often first we had to get under the hood a little. It's so much easier and better now. However. In the business world I see a lot of 20 somethings that are great at IM, text messaging, and feel absolutely at home sitting in front of a screen all day. But something is missing. For all the ballyhoo about how this generation will be great at computing - what they really are great at is their comfort level with a GUI. And that's about it. No essential curiosity, no exploration, no poking around trying to figure out how to do something in the essential business apps (excel, word, powerpoint). More importantly than typing the code and watching the dots move on the screen was the debugging process. Trying to figure out *why* this wasn't working. Finding the solution was such a valuable process - and often revealed a level of processing possibilites not understood before. If all you came up with is a web browser where you point and click at everything - there's no fundamental power over what you are doing - and all curiosity is quashed. And because it's all sealed up, if it doesn't work, or you want to do something else - you're thwarted, there's no poking around under the hood - so giving up is rewarded. It's sad. I would never wish anyone to ever have to deal with a computer crashing just because they wanted to print landscape. But there has to be a way to impart those valuable lessons and critical thinking skills to the next generation.
