Arkay
Lunatic Member
A lot of it comes down to simple interest --or lack of it-- which has "cave man"survival roots, as mentioned above.
My wife once asked me, "Why do you need all this gear, with all these buttons and knobs? Why not just on, off, and volume?" To her, things like mute switches, tone controls, etc... were all just so much confusing distraction. No need for them!
For a long time, I could tell when I came home and looked at the gear, that she had been listening to music. A lot of settings would be randomly, senselessly off-base. She would just turn knobs until she got what she wanted, instead of looking and thinking about what the knobs did. No matter how many times I tried to explain it, she wouldn't learn. Had zero interest. It was almost as if NOT learning confirmed her opinion/position that the knobs were useless.
It wasn't that she couldn't learn. I got her a big-screen plasma TV that she wanted, to watch her favorite TV shows on. I even put a silly little dangle thing on the remote, with her name on it, to make it "specially for her". I was shocked at how quickly she picked up/figured out/remembered how to make IT work. I'd go to sleep leaving it connected to the broadband movie channel decoder, with the sound muted and sent through wireless headphones. The next day when she wanted to watch the local free-to-air TV broadcasts through the TV's own speakers, it would take her no time at all to get it all correct, without screwing things up. She learned quickly, when SHE WANTED TO.
Why do men like knobs and controls and machinery? We probably evolved to, because learning to make tools and weapons gave us a survival advantage. We needed keen ears as hunters and when out in the fields away from the village, where we were also more exposed to predator attacks, etc... Women had less need for either of these things, staying closer to the village, making nothing more complex than perhaps a bowl, and largely protected by the numbers, sounds and smells of a whole encampment. They needed better social skills, nursing skills, etc... --which they generally have (compared to men). A plausible, even probable explanation, although we may never know the truth.
Or perhaps it is simply a reflection of how higher testosterone levels affect the development of the brain? That would be a simpler and logical answer, which might also explain why not all men like audio and some women do (testosterone levels vary within each sex, too, and women do have SOME testosterone). But even if this is true, it doesn't negate the above explanation; perhaps both are true simultaneously. I don't know, lacking any research into this.
My wife once asked me, "Why do you need all this gear, with all these buttons and knobs? Why not just on, off, and volume?" To her, things like mute switches, tone controls, etc... were all just so much confusing distraction. No need for them!
For a long time, I could tell when I came home and looked at the gear, that she had been listening to music. A lot of settings would be randomly, senselessly off-base. She would just turn knobs until she got what she wanted, instead of looking and thinking about what the knobs did. No matter how many times I tried to explain it, she wouldn't learn. Had zero interest. It was almost as if NOT learning confirmed her opinion/position that the knobs were useless.
It wasn't that she couldn't learn.
I got her a big-screen plasma TV that she wanted, to watch her favorite TV shows on. I even put a silly little dangle thing on the remote, with her name on it, to make it "specially for her". I was shocked at how quickly she picked up/figured out/remembered how to make IT work. I'd go to sleep leaving it connected to the broadband movie channel decoder, with the sound muted and sent through wireless headphones. The next day when she wanted to watch the local free-to-air TV broadcasts through the TV's own speakers, it would take her no time at all to get it all correct, without screwing things up. She learned quickly, when SHE WANTED TO.Why do men like knobs and controls and machinery? We probably evolved to, because learning to make tools and weapons gave us a survival advantage. We needed keen ears as hunters and when out in the fields away from the village, where we were also more exposed to predator attacks, etc... Women had less need for either of these things, staying closer to the village, making nothing more complex than perhaps a bowl, and largely protected by the numbers, sounds and smells of a whole encampment. They needed better social skills, nursing skills, etc... --which they generally have (compared to men). A plausible, even probable explanation, although we may never know the truth.
Or perhaps it is simply a reflection of how higher testosterone levels affect the development of the brain? That would be a simpler and logical answer, which might also explain why not all men like audio and some women do (testosterone levels vary within each sex, too, and women do have SOME testosterone). But even if this is true, it doesn't negate the above explanation; perhaps both are true simultaneously. I don't know, lacking any research into this.
