Heavy users, people whose computers are open, and in use, throughout the day, every day, can probably be divided into two categories. On the one hand are those people who are busy using their computers and don't want to take the time to run diagnostic software, while on the other hand we can find people who probably think that that's precisely what a computer is for. When I haven't been able to deal with a technical problem on my own I've invited someone technical to take a look and try to fix whatever problem I've encountered. More often than not, while these people are taking a look into my computer they express amazement at the quantity of files that I've got there. What are you doing with all these files, they'll ask, scratching their heads, trying to figure out, by comparing my computer to theirs, what sort of things I might be doing with a computer that results in having so many files. I'm never sure how to answer such a question (though I admit that I haven't really had that many opportunities to do so), but my standard response is generally something along the lines of "using the computer".

Yes, I remember many years ago when each new version of a program got passed around a group of friends (on disk - we still didn't have modems back then) and we'd install this latest software and excitedly view the new possibilities it offered. I acquired numerous versions of quite a number of word processors in this manner, realizing only after numerous installations that I didn't need these new versions and that the time devoted to installing and salivating over their seemingly worthwhile improvements (which of course I rarely if ever actually used) would be better spent simply using the program that was already installed. But realizations of this sort tend to dawn upon us more slowly than we might want, or want to admit.