Back when Netflix first started, and they were sending out DVDs instead of doing streaming, my stepdad, who is now in his mid-80s wanted to get his money worth. So, he started ripping the movies immediately and returning them the same day, ordering more as quickly as he could. When I went to visit he'd always have added more to his bookcases of DVDs. He recently setup a NAS and Plex and copied them all over. They, my parents, have a streaming service, but they live in the boonies so the connection isn't great, and having thousands of movies and shows ready to go is great for them.

Some old people know a thing or two.

I remember Netflix quickly putting a stop to that by delaying sending out new discs when you got above some weekly threshold. I would drop off my Netflix returns at a huge, regional post office sorting facility, and I knew the discs got back to Netflix in less than 24 hours, yet they would claim they did not receive them for days. Instead of admitting to throttling, they played a shady game.

"Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards, for they are subtle and quick to anger."

Your stepdad sounds awesome :)

I got yelled at at a conference for using my mum as an example of a user who wouldn’t use some complex software solution. I was told off for being sexist, or ageist or something.

They didn’t get it. My mum is super smart and prolific. She has a PhD in international development and has helped tens of thousands of disadvantaged kids go to school.

It’s not that she’s not smart enough. She just doesn’t care about the technology. She’s not going to spontaneously get comfortable with the terminal and learn rsync. But she can install Dropbox no problem. If a kindle just works and has all the books in easy reach, that’s what I’ll recommend to her. She’s too busy to bother with software that’s not user friendly.

That’s not ageism. I think about her a lot when I build software because I respect her. She deserves to spend her day thinking about her job, not thinking about stupid tech problems.

I agree with what you say. I've witnessed more than enough software with absolutely abysmal UI/UX and don't have time for that myself - except for when I really need to, like this one truly abysmal phone app for an energy company which I need to use to pay for my energy.

It looks and acts like it was designed/coded by idiots; additional popups to remind me to rate the app (already did and it was very negative!), a popup with an "okay, got it" prompt - the only prompt - which instead of setting that yes, I actually did get it, just pops up again the next time reminding me to use some feature I don't want to use.

And so on.

That's obviously the fault of the people involved in vomiting out the abysmal application(s).

But yes I agree, most people simply don't care about the technology, they just want a Thing to do the thing they want it to do, no muss no fuss. This situation has always been the case and I can't envisage a time when it will change.

Nearly 100% of the complexity is DRM and the need to use one device with an LCD screen to browse and one with an eink screen to read and sync from A to B.

DRM free content consumed legally or illegally on the same device is simple as netflix.

Yeah. I was born in 1957 and took my first programming class in 1973, assembly language on a PDP-8. Admittedly I'm not a typical 65 year old.

Pfft. Youngster ;). I was born in 1955, I didn't really learn to program until 1980 (and have never programmed professionally), but am plenty tech-savvy. People just have to have the need or interest to be "good" at tech, no matter their age. My mom, who is now in her mid-80s and in memory care, was able to keep up a very active life via email well into her 70s; my wife, who's a couple years older than me, knows enough to use her iPad to read, research and buy stuff online, but hands the device to me for anything more.