Column Steve Jobs probably didn't remember how many times he skinned his knees learning to ride a bike before describing a personal computer as a "bicycle for the mind." Jobs' point was that both tools help us to go further, faster, with just a little extra effort.

Today, the remark serves as a reminder that it's not possible to immediately become productive using a technology you’ve never used before.

That's something I learned during my first encounter with the original Macintosh, the first computer billed as "intuitive." I managed to get myself in front of one at a local computer retailer about 48 hours after its January 1984 launch . Put my hand on the mouse. Dragged it around a bit. Um... So what happens now?

Like most of the population I was utterly naïve about the language of win

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