The trouble with double-entry...

[Robert Uhl]

TC <tc at emailetc.co.uk> writes:
> 
> 	"When you examine bookkeeping from the point of view of the
> user's goals, rather than merely examining the familiar, manual tasks,
> you find that making two entries isn't a goal. If the business person
> could get reliable accounting with one entry, she'd do it. If she
> could do it with no entries she would! The point isn't the method, it
> is the objective."

But as it turns out, even on a computer, that end is not properly
achievable without double entry.  Sometimes users don't know what's in
their own best interest, and so define their goals improperly.  For
example: security.  Users don't want security; they don't want to log
in; they want their computers and data always accessible all the time.
And yet they need security, and only discover this when they no longer
have it.

Anyway, I don't really see this going anywhere.  Let's just agree to
disagree.

-- 
Robert Uhl <http://public.xdi.org/=ruhl>
We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has powerful
muscles, but no personality.                                --Einstein