The invention of buttons paved a way to a modern simplicity

"You push the button, we do the rest". This was once the slogan of the famous Kodak company. They wanted to convince buyers how easy their devices were to operate.

The first button was invented to trigger mechanical devices, and then its application evolved toward electric and digital machines. It is such a powerful invention that abstracts and hides all the complexity of the device mechanism, making people feel powerful and augmenting their capabilities. At the same time, it conveyed the illusory idea of simplicity.

The operating desk with buttons

When the button-operated devices reached a wider audience, in the early days people were projecting about catastrophical global human atrophy since everyone would just push buttons and not do much more. There was also concern that making a technology "invisible" - a "black box", so to speak - would make repair impossible. Alas, this is exactly what is happening now. We don't even try to fix our tools anymore, whereas through history humans were making and fixing their own tools.

Certainly, there is a strong argument that early human tools were primitive and without the many layers of abstraction of contemporary devices. However, my standpoint is that we can reconcile those two extremes: simple tools with little or no maintenance with modern complex devices. There are companies that make electronic devices repairable and user-maintainable, and they represent a computer as a barebone mechanical motor, making it more understandable. They offer longer warranty, use widespread spare parts, even provide maintenance training and service manuals.

The big reason why simple but hard to fix devices prevail is because of current market conditions. "Simple but wrong" is always an easier sell than "complex but right". For example, in the 70s Apple computers had special "Dealer mode" that made computers act differently in the showroom than in the buyer's home. It's easy to set up computers to do that. But early adopters eventually figured out the complexities of the computer interface due to their enthusiasm and recognition of the potential of the computer.

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