Tom Nelson highlighted a tweet from an attendee at Gore’s training lecture in Chicago for junior climateers. I thought a comparison would be apt.
Al Gore’s desktop:
Anthony’s desktop:
And in answer to those wondering, no I didn’t clean mine up. It looks like that every day.
I don’t think Al understands the concept of folders.
Prince Albert has people to do all his organizing & thinking for him, while he jets around the world looking for non-complaining masseuses, Big Oil barons flush with cash for compliant, bloated US political figures & beach-front property.
But both of you use Windows when a Mac is so superior………..
“I don’t think he understands the concept of a lot of things”
One concept he does understand is how to fleece people of their money … directly to his own pocket.
What! No desktop shortcut to solitaire Anthony?
Sarc>
His desktop is wild and untamed just like his other invention…than Internets!
I hope the junior climateers didn’t take lessons on organization from Al. I’m not the most computer savvy–I have my tech people (my kids) help me keep the desk top clean, but at least its clean.
Well, maybe you could say the Goracle thinks outside the box.
JeffC says:
July 31, 2013 at 3:18 pm
>>>>>>>>>>>
I read the linked article. It is SO bad, that if I had to rate Al Gore versus PSI on credibility, I would rate Al Gore more credible. I note that just over HALF the comments have been deleted. Not even RealClimate deletes that much.
“…
I don’t think Al understands the concept of folders.”
Or, I suspect, much of anything else.
But…but… he has ridden the mighty Moon Worm!
Purely on appearance, I like Al Gore’s better. 🙂
His background image is astronomical in nature, and the layout of the icons on the desktop fits that theme – a random distribution across known(?) space.
Useability-wise, Anthony’s is much better and would be much more productive. Finding anything on Al Gore’s desktop would be a nightmare.
Graeme W says:
> Finding anything on Al Gore’s desktop would be a nightmare.
Depends on who’s doing the finding. Have a read about the Clark’s Nutcracker.
I, for one, find it easier to remember the locations of objects in natural spaces rather than in regular grids. I guess you can say I can’t count or follow rules. It is much easier for me to get lost in American grid-towns (just how many hours I spent looking for where I had parked my car!) than in the less orderly British towns.
I don’t think there is anything useful to be got out of comparing people’s desktops, besides the general understanding that we are all different. Not that I’m flattered to be in the same group with Gore, but I know many exceptionally able people for whom grid-like or otherwise ordered structures are not natural.
Cleaning al’s desktop looks “truly inconvienant”
The comparison is interesting, but a lot of people seem to be letting their biases get in the way. Nothing about Al Gore’s approach is wrong. It’s actually quite good if all he needs (quick) access to is what’s on his desktop. And I can’t think of any godo reason for comments like:
Eric:
No. So no. This isn’t even close to right. The number of videos he has stored on his desktop has practically nothing to do with how fast it’d load.
Sean Peake:
What in the world are you talking about? Do you actually think a desktop would use “a lot of RAM” for any amount of icons? He could put ten times as many icons on his desktop, and it wouldn’t have a noticeable impact on RAM consumption.
AlecM:
Gore’s is using a Mac. Not only did you get this wrong, you effectively say Gore is using the better option.
I wonder if Gore thinks being CHAOTIC will help im understand climate?
Check out he “sales dude”s desk top at 7:53.
To be fair to Al Gore, he is a very intelligent human being. Wrong on global warming? Sure. But while that mess looks very disorganized to us, I can guarantee he knows exactly what’s on there and where it is. Why categorize in folders when you’ve already made a mental map in your head? That isn’t to say that Anthony Watts isn’t also a very intelligent human being. He is probably just more patient and thus makes time to keep things organized.
Gene Selkov:
I prefer to combine the two. I have everything aligned to a grid on my desktop, but within that grid, it’s a mess. I know where everything is though. I can find anything without thinking about it.
I challenge anyone to say I’m wrong to do it that way.
It appears he must be Lost In Space
Its not the clutter or neatness that I find telling. Its the content of the desktops I find well (I expected to see it). Al Gores is very much a lack of actual research and more “shock omfg climate doom” files. Anthony has the spreadsheets, research papers, etc. I half expected to see an image thumbnail on Gore’s machine with a cutout of the earth titled “The core is MILLLLIONS of degrees!”
John Whitman says: July 31, 2013 at 2:47 pm
“I think Gore doesn’t understand what concepts are in general.”
…
Astute observation … this should become a candidate for “Quote of the Week”.
Brandon, you are clearly a reactionary fool. Al Gores desk top illustrates his cluttered and disorganized mind.
To think that this highly organised man could have been president. Thank you chad.
I personally liked the organization capabilities of the old Win 95 program manager which will still run in Win XP if progman.exe and the progman.ini files are imported to the windows directory. Note that is NOT a boot shell but just an icon on the XP desk top which can have any name.
http://techpubs.sgi.com/library/dynaweb_docs/0530/SGI_EndUser/books/SWin_UG/sgi_html/figures/50a.winbasics.gif
Unfortunately only one version of the program manager will run in XP so I can’t have multiple Program manager icons on the desk top like I could in Win 95. It sure helps to neaten up the desk top though and makes things much easier to find if one has a large number of similar oft opened programs or files.
Digital diarrhea. Any bets on who would win in a debate? Paycheck on Watts.
Al’s desktop looks nightmarish to me, but I have to agree with Brandon.
Over years of managing staff in a policy environment, I learned that apparent mess and chaos is just the way some people like to operate, and that it doesn’t necessarily mean that they are inefficient, incompetent or can’t find things. It can mean that, but very often doesn’t.
Mind you, someone as rich as Al just pays people to organise his life for him (other than his desktop), so it is quite possible that his desktop reflects his brain.