Are machines too smart?

And the users too dumb?

Creating Passionate Users is one of those blogs I rarely read because her posts are so long and really, who has time for that with 80 feeds vying for attention? But this particular post, Are our tools making us dumber?, is pretty dang interesting.

My impatience with balancing a checkbook without the use of a calculator would indicate so. As frightening as it is to admit, my math skills have definitely declined because a calculator is so much more convenient.

I also really wish I'd learned HTML before trying to use Dreamweaver instead of vice versa. It really would have helped with all those insane urges to tear out my hair.

I think this is also part of the reason I try to explain "why" to library users. Of course, my explanation isn't the most brilliant - "okay, the library catalog is dumb. Unlike Google, it doesn't think to insert 'and' between all your words, and it also doesn't eliminate all those extra words you don't need, like 'a', 'an, 'the', etc." Before one can really understand something, I think the "why" behind it is important, even if it's not exact. Don't just use the tool, get a basic understanding of it first.

I wonder how else this can apply to libraries...