Are Mac Users Smarter than PC Users? 987
arminw writes "Maybe not smarter, but according to MacNewsWorld they are better at expressing themselves than the average Slashdotter and certainly are better at handling the king's English than the average PC operator." Also, michael is better than CowboyNeal. Mathematical expressions of written style don't lie!
It's economics really... (Score:5, Insightful)
Michael smart? (Score:5, Insightful)
In reality, it's a pretty funny article. Good read. Best quote from the article:
Please, kill the author... thank you. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Troll food: I'm hungry! (Score:5, Insightful)
> that most people read at).
Right on. Judging Slashdot by the -1 comments is a bit like judging a magazine by the articles it rejects.
Actually, even that's not fair, since it's much easier to post GNAA to Slashdot than it is to submit an article to a magazine...
Those who are truely intellegent... (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean, if you don't use them all, how can you really say one is better than the others?
Re:It's economics really... (Score:3, Insightful)
Most PC users I know bemoan the cost of a new mac, yet they'll gladly spend $25k on a brand new car that loses $5k of that value the day they drive it home.
That is, spend 20 minutes driving it home to sit in front of their $400 PC for the next 4 hours.
People choose their priorities.
Question.... (Score:2, Insightful)
That makes sense to me. (Score:5, Insightful)
"Do the Right Thing. It will gratify some people and astound the rest." - Mark Twain
Typical Mac user has changed over the years (Score:5, Insightful)
Granted there are still "oooh, it looks sexy" Mac users, but those are quickly becoming the exception, not the rule.
BTW: take a look at some of the Mac books at Barnes and Noble or Borders, almost half of them are thick, serious unix books!
I'm a mac user and I hate these articles. (Score:5, Insightful)
Yeah, the average mac user probably is smarter than the average pc user. The 4% of mac users are also in the upper 4% of the income scale. Guess what? Well educated smart people tend to have more money than others, your average BMW owner is probably "smarter" than your average kia owner.
Looking at this in any way that's supposed to matter is just elitist. Moving on . . .
mac users and communications (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm not so sure... (Score:5, Insightful)
I dunno about that. The typical Mac users (including and sometimes especially artists) I run across typically read at least one of the thick "Mac Bible" type reference books and love to show off all the little tricks they know. Times have changed since Mac users were just a group of folks too scared of DOS and not quite wealthy enough for a Sun, SGI, or Apollo workstation. Today Mac users have different reasons for using the platform (anti-Microsoft, unix roots, something new/different, strong DV25 media support, etc). Even the casual browsers in the mall Apple Stores seem to posess clue.
It seems to me that more and more of the clueless personal computer users/owners generally just buy whatever they use at work. Generally a Dell or Compaq. (It's funny trying to talk someone out of buying a Compaq--they often argue that they can't buy a Dell as they've never used one before and wouldn't know where to start!)
Re:I say no (Score:5, Insightful)
Mac users can't grasp things as simple as right click
Kinda hard to "right click" with a one-button mouse. Anyone who buys a 2-button USB mouse for a Mac can certainly "grasp" right-clicking; I did, and so did every other Mac user I've ever seen with a two-button mouse.
and totally wig out when they have to open a command prompt to do something like ipconfig
On Mac OS X, you don't need to use ipconfig, and that's the point. Use the Network Preference Pane, which is painless.
What you need to realize is that to most people computers are a means to an end, not an end unto itself. As a developer, I'm sometimes happy to tinker around with my work Linux machine, but mostly I just want to get something done and not have to tediously and endlessly tweak RedHat 9.0 to do what I want. I'd rather use Mac OS X and just get things done.
Re:It's economics really... (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm not trying to diss anyone who has actually attended such a school, i'm just pissed-off at the 'technical education industry' that DeVry exemplifies. I've probably interviewed about 20 or so DeVry candidates for various technical positions and they've all been horrible. I guess truck-stops and loading docks need people to hit CNTL-ALT-DEL these days too.
Re:It's economics really... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Flamebait (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Troll food: I'm hungry! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It's economics really... (Score:1, Insightful)
Higher income IS correlated with education and intelligence. If the mean income of Mac users is significantly higher, you can reasonably expect higher intelligence as well. For the type of "analysis" done here, it matters little what their preferences are or what they can afford. Do you really find it hard to believe that if you take a random sample of Mac users and a random sample of PC users, that the mean (or median) income of the Mac group will be higher?
What a waste of time (Score:5, Insightful)
The sad part is that this made it to the
Re:They may be Intellectually smarter... (Score:5, Insightful)
Funny, the same can be said for someone who buys a pre-built PC with a Windows license included.
They must be (Score:5, Insightful)
The Choice of Free-Thinkers (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:It's economics really... (Score:5, Insightful)
You could probably boil this all down to bullsh*t, though. I mean, the whole story, not your post. It's not a scientific study, the results aren't meaningful, and so there's no need to 'boil it down' at all.
[this coming from a Mac user who thinks he's smarter than everyone else... but it has nothing to do with being a Mac user]
Perhaps they're more technologically aware (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:The funniest part (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Stupid things i've heard mac users say. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Article text in case of slashdotting! (Score:5, Insightful)
1. The controls on this 'study' are horrid. I'm not sure if the PC Mag forum is moderated or not, but slashdot can be considered unmoderated. If you are not familiar with Macintouch, their reader contributions are not submitted to a web form, but emailed directly to an editor. It would be natural to presume that the editor can then cherry-pick the best and erudite of responses and filter out the off-topic and poorly worded ones as well.
2. In general, Mac users tended to cluster into the scientific, education, and creative communities. Mac using may be self selecting based on the areas of need for their professional foci.
3. Leading from 2, the presumption that a correlation between Mac usage and 'smarts' does not mean a causal one. Just because you must use a Mac does not mean you like to use Macs, nor does Mac usage make you smarter.
That's all I've got to say about this 'study'.
Disclaimer: I use Macs, and I like them. I use PCs, and I like them (for the most part).
Re:I'm a mac user and I hate these articles. (Score:3, Insightful)
How do you explain Paris Hilton?
He never said that people with money are smart, he said people who are smart tend to have more money. Paris Hilton is probably just another case of Trophy Wife Syndrome*.
* this is a theory I've developed over the years to explain a certain trend I've noticed among rich folks I've met in the Brentwood/Bel Air/Beverly Hills area. Trophy Wife Syndrome: (1)a man is a shrewd financial genius and makes GOBS of money; (2) genius marries a gorgeous, but highly vacuous and dull-witted woman; (3) the children turn out very pretty, but tend toward being vacuous and dull witted; (4) children eventually either a)inherit the father's business empire and run it into the ground because they're dimwits, or b) the father realized his children were dopes and set the business to run itself while the children hold figurehead VP jobs in the corporation, or maybe just livew lives of luxury.
Re:Article text in case of slashdotting! (Score:5, Insightful)
Then again, it's only speculation. My English skills are hand over fist above every college graduate I've met in person.
Watch out. Article about forum users! (Score:2, Insightful)
I think that the typical PC forum user is young and looking for answers to their questions about e-donkey or kazaa, while mac people tend to be older and look for some other things (what? I dunno
While I'm not an English spoker, I've seen some of the best English arount in comp.lang.perl.moderated
Re:Pudge... (Score:4, Insightful)
The dumb folks are more likely to use whatever is sat in front of them, not having the knowledge or courage to move away from what they know, even though other things could be better.
Intelligents are more likely to try different things, to find the best deal.
Re:Typical Mac user has changed over the years (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Mac vs PC- intelligence of the user (Score:2, Insightful)
Anyone that says that mac users "like to use it for artistic / creative purposes" after claiming to have been "a mac user once" usually turns out to be the guy that didn't know how to use it when working tech support for an ISP, so assumed it must only be used by the creatively insane.
After all, it *does* take some kind of lunatic to use one of these things.
Whether or not Mac users are smarter than PC users is irrelevant. I prefer to think that the computer is only as smart as the user makes it. I happen to know of several incredibly stable Unix (c'mon, a 6yr uptime!!??) and Mac servers and workstations, I can only assume their users are intelligent as well.
I know of not one Windows machine that can claim a six year uptime.
Even more marked than that... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It's economics really... (Score:2, Insightful)
The specs the $799 Mac are roughly the same as a $399 PC here [emachines.com] (the Mac has Firewire, probably a more robust processor, and faster memory, while the PC has built-in ethernet, a *much* higher clock speed, and a memory reader). When most people consider their computer an appliance (versus a performance machine), saving $400 for a 'mundane' PC is a big deal.
Also, the person who spends $2,000+ on a PC is either a geek who's putting together an amazingly fast machine themself, or an average person who has the money to buy a top of the line pre-built PC. Neither fall into the category of someone looking for a budget computer.
Re:Mac vs PC- intelligence of the user (Score:4, Insightful)
While the sophmoric use of vocabulary for purposes of showing off is generally obnoxious, there are valid reasons to use language as powerfully as one can.
Yes, effective communication must often take the education level of the audience into account. However, let us not dumb down all language in order to satisfy the lowest common denominator.
Re:Mac vs PC- intelligence of the user (Score:3, Insightful)
Articulation == Intelligence (Score:3, Insightful)
I beg to differ, although this argument can have no resolution: it all depends on how you define intelligence
Language skills are primarily built through reading and speaking, not writing. If you never read anything other than "Go Dog Go" and "Yo Mama!" is accepted as conversation, you shall never attain a greater skill at language in general.
Without the firm base of language, how can one build the theoretical framework wherein to store the facts and relationships which we would construe as intelligence? Without the framework, persons who achieve a narrow skill in areas such as creating spreadsheets are nothing more than an idiot savant.
Case in point: a software developer who lives in their mother's basement with a Grade 12 education (or worse, a C.Sc. degree). Great skill in memory managment or network protocols may be attained, but any clue as to how to connect these skills to everyday life or commerce is lacking. We used to have a guy with a C.Sc. college degree working here. He could argue all day long about the inefficiency of a solution, but could not communicate with any of our clients in an intelligent manner.
Therefore I define intelligence as more than a narrowly-focused skill. It requires a breadth of knowledge which comes from reading and communicating with others who have differing experiences and viewpoints. These communication skills will manifest themselves in writing ability.
Now, I don't agree with the original article's methodology, but I would agree on principle that if one is a clear communicator and accustomed to such, one would prefer an OS which endeavors to distinguish itself through a superior user experience (i.e. clearer communication to the user).
HBHRe:Intellegence is overrated... (Score:3, Insightful)
And what value did you place on your time?
Re:Flamebait (Score:3, Insightful)
A good idea and determination will win over pure smarts any day. If you're less intelligent you can easily hire smart people to run the business. If you're not creative you can't easily hire people to give you ideas to start a company with.
The wealthiest people in the U.S. are those who own(ed) their own business. You don't get filthy rich punching a time clock and collecting a paycheck from your employer every other week.
You don't have to be a Kreskin.... (Score:3, Insightful)
With all the programmers out there, one might find writing the 'first' mac OS X virus a challenge or a feather in their cap - yet there aren't any to be found. If a virus writer wants recognition, what better way than to attack the 'virus free' mac?
I guess I will stay with my 'yuppie artsy know it all userbase' and enjoy not having to purchase a firewall, virus software, and all the other crap that is necessary to run Windows with an internet connection.
Re:Think Different... (Score:3, Insightful)