On Customization and Adaptation

One of the applied issues related to cyborg interactions that I find myself contemplating with some (too much?) frequency is the problem of customizing your computing interfaces. Problem? Well here are two arguments that I've been considering:

1. Customization of our computers and our computing interface allows us to work more efficiently and naturally, so that the computer just works the way we need it to and doesn't get in our way. When I say customization, I mean, tweaking the configurations on your text editor/editing program, creating shortcuts, using programs like Quicksilver emacs, or awesome to shape your environment.

   No matter how geeky you are, though, we all customize our environment somewhat. Some of us are a bit more into this than others, of course, and I'm a big fan of customization, obviously (or not) but customization isn't without it's drawbacks...

2. Which are, that customization means additional learning curve, and increased start-up costs whenever you get a new computer. Additional learning curve because you have to learn what a program/system is capable of to begin with, what needs to be changed in order for you to work better, and then you'd need to know how to change it. Which takes some know how.

   Increased start up costs are a bit more complex. Basically if you customize your system/applications, then when you get dropped into a system that's new or with which you're unfamiliar, you have to spend some time either adjusting back to the defaults or customizing things to work with your system. The even worse corollary to this is that you use multiple system you also have to keep the customizations on all of your systems in sync, other wise, it's all sorts of complicated. There are ways to ameliorate these problems, but they have to be considered.

I, obviously, fall into the "customization is optimal" school of thought, but the other school--in many circumstances--has a lot of merit for some users. This is one of the topics that I'll be exploring more in these blog posts, that we can discuss on the wiki and/or that you and I might discuss in a more applied context if you or your organization would like to discuss your work and technology with me. In any case, I look forward to hearing from you!