The Power of Quicksilver
Published on 6 Oct 2007 · Filed in Musing · 272 words (estimated 2 minutes to read)So the other day I’m sitting in my office, working on my laptop, when my seven year old son came up to me and asked a question. I don’t recall exactly what I was doing at the time (probably working on a blog post!), but as I frequently do when working in my office I was listening to some Christian music with iTunes (and GrowlTunes). So that I could hear my son ask his question, I quickly pulled up Quicksilver and paused iTunes with only a few keystrokes.
“What did you just do?” my son asked. Whatever question had been on his mind previously was now gone.
“I paused iTunes so that I could pay attention to your question,” I replied.
“How did you do that?” His curiosity, naturally high anyway (he is a seven year old kid, after all), is really piqued now.
“I used Quicksilver,” I answered.
“What’s Quicksilver?”
I took a moment to show him how it worked. He was completely hooked, and since that day has been bugging me incessantly to install Quicksilver on the Mac mini downstairs. I haven’t yet installed it, mostly because I don’t want to give him any excuses to spend more time on the computer than he does already. Another part of me, though, is intrigued by how naturally the idea behind Quicksilver seemed to come to him. What is the mysterious attraction behind Quicksilver? Is it truly so natural, so intuitive, that even young children seem to “get” it? Or is it just “cool” to a seven year old, and that’s why he wants it? Or is it a little of both?