Thursday, September 27, 2007

9/28

Here is a passage that I thought was interesting:

It seems natural for people to blame their own misfortunes on the environment. It seems equally natural to blame other people's misfortunes on their personalities. Just the opposite attribution, by the way, is made when things go well. When things go right people credit their own forceful personalities and intelligence: "I really did a good job today; no wonder we finished the project so well"(41).

Norman, Donald A. The Design of Everyday Things
New York: Basic Books, 1988.

I thought this was interesting because it is something I have personally done. When I do something extremely well I think it is because I have put in a good amount of time and effort. The same for when I screw up. If I was writing a paper at the last minute and suddenly my computer crashes I would blame my computer and not the fact that I procrastinated until the last minute.

1 comment:

Chuck Stull said...

Why do people seem to behave differently regarding objects, blaming themselves when design makes an object difficult to use?