A blog entry from Microsoft’s ‘user experience’ program manager.

One of the most interesting epiphanies I’ve had over the last few years seems on the surface like a paradox: "help" in Office is mostly used by experts and enthusiasts.

via UIE Brain Sparks

I didn’t know the experts do read the help.
Wait a minute, wasn’t it on purpose that Microsoft made the Help inaccessible indecipherable, in order to keep three million jobs working for the next version of "xxx for dummies/idiots/starters/everybody"? What is he wondering about?

Anyhow, it is still great to know what those guys are doing out there – with another celebrity Microsofter.

Yes they might not always be telling the truth, yes those posts might be disguised version of sales pitches (which I honestly don’t know), but so are us. It is not about the amount and accuracy of knowledge we gain. The point for us is to have a sense of companionship and empathy with those on "the other side". I think it works for them, too.

The closer the distance, the more difficult judging Microsoft (or any other corporate) becomes. Our voice become muted since it is hard to criticize acquaintance and because we realize they are smart as hell and know much more than we thought they did (they work in Microsoft or equivalence, remember). Inevitable but still it is scary to lose our confidence.

Let’s pump up this idea. The sense of being lost, not sure anymore about the old world, the Matrix experience, is occurring to everybody these days thanks to technology and dominance of English as a communication tool.

Those who held huge power continue to have more (well I heard somewhere that truly rich guys never lose their assets),
Those who held moderate power turn their anger and frustration to public since they are afraid of losing everything (and frequently they do),
Those who held slightly less power embrace the new reality since the situation became even and they still have enough power to stand up again,
Those who never held any power falls even lower since they have to abandon what little power they were starting to gain.

(Power includes influence, wealth, health, and wisdom)

It is the second and third group that are making the news, that are the majority, and ultimately that decide the future. I would like to belong (and stay there for a while) to the third group, which contains the biggest amount of fun (ups and downs) and – (I believe) the group that look forward to making the future a better one.