@4 Bob, this is a really interesting and important point that you are bringing up. I think that it is worth a separate post, but briefly, I think that it might not be that straightforward. there are plenty of smart people who are able to learn complex concepts in other disciplines, but not excel in the others. I think that there are 3 categories - small category of people who can just wrap their minds around anything, those who memorize things mechanically and then there are those who are capable of grasping certain things well but not others. Categories 2 and 3 are not fixed. It seems to me that since software is intangible, the category 3 is larger and category 2 is smaller. - Alex Iskold from FriendFeed MT Plugin

@Alex This reminds me of a conversation a little while ago about how "liberating" it was switching to Mac and to the iPhone, which I completely agree with. What's liberating about it is that one of the major bi-products of the digital revolution, as you've pointed out, is "fewer (physical) products". I was looking around my house the other day doing a little new years house cleaning/organization and I noticed how few PHYSICAL gadgets I have anymore. My iPhone and my Mac have replaced a great many of the physical objects that all had a specialized purpose - now we use tons of software on fewer platforms to achieve the same variety of entertainment, productivity, information gathering etc. My iPhone alone is amazing...it's allowed me to trash my brick-sized "yellow pages" book, physical books, CDs, my address book, alarm clock and radio, calculator...even my emergency flashlight, which is obviously an extreme case, but it's true - if the lights went out right now I wouldn't hesitate to whip out my iPhone and - Steffan Antonas from FriendFeed MT Plugin