There is an interesting question when it comes to computers. What kind of person should our systems or products be made for? Should we make something for the casual user who will not go that deep into the system, or should we make it for the hobbyist who will optimize their experience and put in effort? This is a question about effort at a fundamental level.

This divide is not only about computers. Almost every hobby has the casual group and the hardcore group. Punk music has casual enjoyers who get called posers. Audio people have hardcore obsessives who chase the perfect sound. These two groups appear everywhere. The casual and the hobbyist. That tension exists in almost every field.

I used to believe that anyone could learn anything if they believed in themselves. I grew up dyslexic and with ADHD, so learning was difficult. I liked learning, but I could not read fast or stay focused. Most dyslexia treatments failed me, and I had to figure things out on my own. Through effort I eventually reached a college level of reading.

Now we have kids with a drop in literacy rates. To me that is a failure of multiple factors. The education system that was already bad, parents who give children unrestricted computer access, and tech companies that exploit children for profit. All of this together creates a kind of brain drain. Kids scroll TikTok all day instead of reading, and it shows.

I want to focus on the technology side because that is my area of experience. Modern mobile tech and software are designed to absorb time and remove the need for effort. Kids do not have to understand how anything works. They can let the machine think for them and take over their time. It limits growth. And I know this sounds ironic because I use tech too, but the problem is not using tech. The problem is letting it make you weak.

I had to learn how to fix my own problems. I had to learn how to get games because my dad would not buy them. I built my own PC in high school and it was a powerful experience. All of that shaped me into a computer hobbyist and eventually pushed me toward wanting to work in games.

More and more computers are not used to create, grow, or challenge the individual. They are built to take time and make everything as low effort as possible. You can see this in operating systems hiding real options, and websites designed to trap you in endless scrolling instead of letting you actually do something. This push toward ease has left many people less capable than previous generations. I am not against convenience. I am against losing control of it.

Any hobbyist, whether in computers, games, music, art, or anything else, puts real effort and passion into their craft. That is the nature of DIY and punk. A computer hobbyist uses tools and shapes them for their own needs. They take control of technology instead of letting it control them. Technology should give you control. Technology should be another tool in your hands, not your master.

Only a small group of people want to expend effort into things. Most people are lazy and do not want to engage their brains or their minds. That weakens the individual and makes them ethically and emotionally stunted. It turns people into passive objects and children instead of fully capable adults.

If you are a more casual in life in general, I am sorry, but I think you are living to some degree a sickly life. That does not mean you have to do everything at a hardcore level, but you should build on yourself and your skills and become more hardcore with life. Do something new and do not be a passive consumer with no real skills.

If you are the kind of person who wants to grow and become something better, then do not live life as a slug rotting your brains out while doing nothing constructive with your time. Without effort you decay, because only effort lets you overcome your limitations.