Not everyone is like you

This could be a tech blog where I rant about developers who believe everyone has the same awesome computer system they have, with the same browser and the same super fast connection, and that everyone cares about the same shiny objects they do.

But that would limit my rant.

The world is a big place with billions of people. You expect the aboriginal bushman to be different from you and you expect the Chinese factory worker to be different from you. These folks are foreign and somehow removed from your life, so you can keep them separate from your daily routine. Knowing they're different makes it easier to account for their odd behavior.

But there's that guy driving like an idiot, or the person who just can't figure out how to operate the U-Scan at the grocery store -- those subtle differences drive us nuts because we just don't understand how someone who looks like us, talks like us and shops in the same store as us can be such a fucking idiot.

They aren't really idiots, they're just different. They've seen things you haven't and they haven't seen things you have. Those different experiences mean that they interact with the world differently than you do, and that's okay.

The trouble comes in when you try to put someone into your box and they aren't like you. Sure, companies design products for vertical markets and take advantage of the similarities in different groups, but the world is getting more tightly packed and we're forced to use tools that were designed for someone not like us.

Not everyone can change the way they do things, not everyone can upgrade whatever gadget it is that they have that doesn't work with whatever cool thing it is you just released to the wild. Not everyone is going to fall in love with the color, the feel, or even the basic idea of the thing that you think is the coolest piece shit on the face of the planet.

Not everyone is like you.

As you go through life, as you make decisions about things you bring into the world, or promote, or stock in your store, or give as gifts, or show off at the bar… as you try to convince other people that they should change so they can use the thing you think is cool, remember, you aren't like them, and maybe they don't need to be like you.