11 Mar 2026
Jeff Johnson writes, in If computers are the future, why are computer users expected to be permanently illiterate?:
The iPhone seems to have engendered a culture of anti-intellectualism and learned helplessness so pervasive that users have become evangelists for their own disempowerment.
The line “evangelists for their own disempowerment” struck me because it’s a thing I’ve seen (I think we’ve all seen) over and over, and certainly not just in tech.
What is the bug in human nature that makes some people, at least some of the time, argue so strenuously in favor of less autonomy and freedom — even for themselves? If we can’t fix it, how can we better work around it?