# Most counter-intuitive device?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counter-intuitive-device/460235
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [August 16, 2008, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counter-intuitive-device/460235 "2008-08-16T17:55:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2008, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counter-intuitive-device/460235/1 "2008-08-16T17:55:13Z")
I cuss and mumble at the stupidity of programming in many devices and computer programs. Having started so many years ago with Windows 1.0 and suffered through all succeeding versions up to XP, I actually have a good feeling for it, but can just imagine how difficult it must be to master for a first-time user.
Anyhow, of all the techie gadgets I have used, I think I’d have to vote for digital cameras as being the most counter-intuitive. I love what they do, but trying to figure out all the things on the many menus is a nightmare.
Especially so as no two cameras I’ve used have the same setups. And the manuals hark back to early computer documentation in that they are mostly useless in trying to find out anything.
There are probably worse. What’s your vote for the device that is the most difficult to use or understand how its features work?
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### Author:  [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2008, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counter-intuitive-device/460235/2 "2008-08-16T18:00:08Z")
On almost every microfilm reader I have ever used, you advance the film by turning the knob to the left. WTF?
And now we have this new fancy-schmancy reader where you turn the knob to the right, but that just confuses me more, because I use both types of machine.
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### Author:  [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2008, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counter-intuitive-device/460235/3 "2008-08-16T18:15:14Z")
[QUOTE=Zsofia]
On almost every microfilm reader I have ever used, you advance the film by turning the knob to the left.
[/QUOTE]
Double whammy! Counter-intuitive and counter-clockwise.
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### Author:  [@CutterJohn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CutterJohn)
#### Post date: [August 16, 2008, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counter-intuitive-device/460235/4 "2008-08-16T19:34:24Z")
I have that reaction every time i run into reverse threaded fittings. Its evil, its wrong, and its just plain counterintuitive.
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### Author:  [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2008, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counter-intuitive-device/460235/5 "2008-08-17T22:37:58Z")
Comcast’s digital cable remote. You can bring up a listing of the current shows and scan through them, which is cool, but the channel listing goes from the low channel numbers to the high numbers. So, in order to scan the UPPER channels, you have to press the DOWN button. It’s totally counter intuitive and I find myself scanning in the wrong direction about once a day.
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [August 17, 2008, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counter-intuitive-device/460235/6 "2008-08-17T23:02:47Z")
Cellphones rank pretty high on the list.
Hit the red OFF button to turn it on. Actually it was already on, as you’d find out if someone tried to call YOU while it was dark and apparently turned off. There’s a true no-kidding “OFF” but just try to find the controls that make THAT happen!
There’s a display indicating that you’ve got a %^#@!load of voicemail messages. Click that and whoops NO it does not take you to them. It does not play them. I think it opens a screen in which you set up your outbound voicemail message or something. Or maybe it connects you to the world wide web for a $42 instant surcharge, I forget.
There are 490 tiny little icons ensconced in various corners. Any given one if them will open some function you totally had no interest in [“What the hell is this, a video game?!??”] and then your phone is stuck in that mode when you first turn it on until by sheer accident you do something that makes that stop being the default. After a couple iterations of this, you learn to avoid ever touching anything you don’t already understand. Did I mention that there are 490 of them?
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### Author:  [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)
#### Post date: [August 18, 2008, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counter-intuitive-device/460235/7 "2008-08-18T13:34:01Z")
I don’t think cell phones or digital cameras have anything on GPSs. They’ve gotten better over the past few years, but in general those little hand-held GPS units really suck.
I’m not talking about the ones made for cars - the talking ones. Those rock. I’m talking the ones people use to navigate around in the woods. Boy, those suck.
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### Author:  [@brendon\_small](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brendon_small)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2008, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counter-intuitive-device/460235/8 "2008-08-19T02:30:01Z")
[QUOTE=Kyla]
Comcast’s digital cable remote. You can bring up a listing of the current shows and scan through them, which is cool, but the channel listing goes from the low channel numbers to the high numbers. So, in order to scan the UPPER channels, you have to press the DOWN button. It’s totally counter intuitive and I find myself scanning in the wrong direction about once a day.
[/QUOTE]
We have Time Warner cable here, and the menu used to be much like what you’ve described. It drives me nuts when I think about it…
Brendon Small
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2008, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counter-intuitive-device/460235/9 "2008-08-19T02:41:06Z")
Rubik’s cube. You have know idea WTF it is about without instructions.
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### Author:  [@Astroboy14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Astroboy14)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2008, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counter-intuitive-device/460235/10 "2008-08-19T03:00:19Z")
**sigh**
OK, Grandma, Grandpa… we’ll go over it one more time…
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### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2008, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counter-intuitive-device/460235/11 "2008-08-19T03:29:50Z")
Facebook.
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### Author:  [@SuntanTigerTamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanTigerTamer)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2008, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counter-intuitive-device/460235/12 "2008-08-19T04:56:39Z")
> **[Google Sites: Sign-in](https://accounts.google.com/v3/signin/identifier?continue=https%3A%2F%2Fsites.google.com%2Fsite%2Fsites%2Fsystem%2Ferrors%2FWebspaceNotFound%3Fpath%3D%2Fadifferentvista%2FFailureCD.jpg&followup=https%3A%2F%2Fsites.google.com%2Fsite%2Fsites%2Fsystem%2Ferrors%2FWebspaceNotFound%3Fpath%3D%2Fadifferentvista%2FFailureCD.jpg&ifkv=AYZoVhftQNE0Ym0pPVWt5heW_y8gNPjVOuDzEz6k_pKUq3A1TMggQAF-qCaAxhHlD6De64_CYL8k8g&passive=1209600&service=jotspot&flowName=WebLiteSignIn&flowEntry=ServiceLogin&dsh=S1711716696%3A1696980957595284)**
>
> Access Google Sites with a personal Google account or Google Workspace account (for business use).
I’ve found this device I picked up to be all but impossible to operate. I may need to re-read the manual.
Updates to follow…
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### Author:  [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2008, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counter-intuitive-device/460235/13 "2008-08-19T16:53:59Z")
[QUOTE=CutterJohn]
I have that reaction every time i run into reverse threaded fittings. Its evil, its wrong, and its just plain counterintuitive.
[/QUOTE]
Where do you see them? I’ve only ever found them in bicycles (where there are really good reasons for them).
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### Author:  [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2008, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counter-intuitive-device/460235/14 "2008-08-19T17:12:24Z")
ALL music software (sequencers, DAWs, whatever) is thoroughly arcane, impenetrable, poorly written, and half broken (at least).
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### Author:  [@threemae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threemae)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2008, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counter-intuitive-device/460235/15 "2008-08-19T17:37:20Z")
[QUOTE=CutterJohn]
I have that reaction every time i run into reverse threaded fittings. Its evil, its wrong, and its just plain counterintuitive.
[/QUOTE]
And completely necessary in 99.99% of applications that use them. If the purpose of a given bolt is to hold things together, preventing that bolt from untorquing itself and no longer holding things together seems fairly intuitive to me. Perhaps they ought to be marked in some way to warn someone about the reverse-thread, but they aren’t usually included just for the hell of it.
You can’t fight physics, man.
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2008, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counter-intuitive-device/460235/16 "2008-08-19T17:48:55Z")
Incomprehensible devices mean more job security for those who explain them! _cough_ tech writers _cough_
[sub]Er, did I just say that out loud?[/sub]
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### Author:  [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2008, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counter-intuitive-device/460235/17 "2008-08-19T17:55:35Z")
Until you get used to them “STANDBY” lights on audio/video equipment were pretty counterintuitve.
Why would a light turn “on” when you turned a unit “off”.
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2008, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counter-intuitive-device/460235/18 "2008-08-19T18:35:52Z")
Women?
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### Author:  [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2008, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counter-intuitive-device/460235/19 "2008-08-19T19:31:45Z")
VCRs and alarm clocks. Both the objects of much wrath when they don’t activate at the proper time.
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### Author:  [@Spiny\_Norman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiny_Norman)
#### Post date: [August 19, 2008, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-counter-intuitive-device/460235/20 "2008-08-19T19:50:05Z")
[QUOTE=threemae]
And completely necessary in 99.99% of applications that use them. If the purpose of a given bolt is to hold things together, preventing that bolt from untorquing itself and no longer holding things together seems fairly intuitive to me. Perhaps they ought to be marked in some way to warn someone about the reverse-thread, but they aren’t usually included just for the hell of it.
You can’t fight physics, man.
[/QUOTE]
Heh - in my misspent youth, I was trained on a type of anti-armor mine where the bleeding _detonator_ was attached to the igniter charge using reverse-thread. I wonder who thought that up. If there ever was a situation where you’d rather not have people hurl parts against the wall in frustration…
People pick it up by osmosis these days, but I am old enough to remember when the computer mouse made its debut as a wide-spread input device. Double-clicking is very much learned, it’s not intuitive.
Shutting down OS/2 was, IIRC, initiated by \*right-clicking on the Desktop \*and clicking “Shutdown”. Not the first thing that comes to mind.
And staying with the computer theme: The vi editor. It’s extremely powerful, but comes with a learning curve reminiscent of Eiger’s North Face. Until you know what you’re doing, your file is one keystroke away from disaster.
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