Is User-Friendly the Way to Go?

Everything in the computer world: search, social networking, operating systems, even system administration, is going towards user-friendliness. User-friendliness is the carrot used by various manufacturers to lure consumers towards their products. It relies on humans' inherent laziness: if you can do something more easily, why do it the hard way?

That is also a good argument for user-friendliness: why expend effort (i.e. incur costs) learning how to do things the hard way when the same things can be done the easy way (i.e. at lower cost)?

But there is a hidden cost. It is hidden in the words "same things" above. I think there are things that cannot be done without using more sophisticated methods than the basic, user-friendly, point-and-click methods. How would you rename all files in your system with the extension ".bin" to ".exe" in a user-friendly fashion? This is just an example of a common task. If people could all write basic code, there would be a lot of advanced tasks that would become common. This would lead to greater complexity in the use of computers, and hence faster innovation.

As an analogy: It takes more effort to learn 5th grade math than to learn 1st grade math. 1st grade math is more user-friendly than 5th grade math. But you can do more with 5th grade math than with 1st grade math. Everyone should learn 5th grade math. However, only specialists need to learn masters-degree level math.

So the question is: where are consumer digital products currently poised? If they are poised at the 10th or 12th grade level, there is no need to educate people any more; only specialists need to learn anything more from this point on. If they are poised at the 1st or 5th grade level, people should be expected to learn more; that will lead to more effective use of digital resources.