All those buttons...

We just bought a new over-the-range microwave oven.
Good grief! The control panel reminds me of the Apollo command module console. A gazillion buttons and choices.

Now, I am not new to microwave cooking; our family was one of the first in our area to have one in ‘68. In those days it was turn the dial and press the green button, or on the smaller model just turn the dial.
I guess I haven’t progressed all that far. I think basically I hit “2-2-2 START” or “Add 30 second” multiple times until I’m where I want to be.

Do people really use all those other buttons?

My wife's sister recently bought their 89 year old father a Cuisinart convection microwave. He couldn't figure out how to use it. Sister is the Rachel Ray type, always cooking and baking. She brought the thing here and says "I don't know why he's having trouble, look how easy this is!" -pointing to the keypad:
Attachment 414534
--now, I'm pretty good at understanding most microwaves, but throw in the convection extras, and I'm needing to look at the manual! It doesn't surprise me a bit that my FIL was having trouble!

So we bought him this:
Attachment 414535
a combo oven / hot air fryer, WITH KNOBS! Something even an 89 year old guy can understand!
Now, it's not a microwave, but he still has an older microwave, and he's really been wanting a hot-air fryer.

But we got overruled by the the SIL:

"he won't be able to read the knobs"... So she bought him a plainjane toaster oven- with knobs ;) --

And the 2 Cuisinart's are ours now. Just have to learn how to use the microwave :D

Yes, I use a lot of those features on our over the range microwave.

Different power levels, programmed defrost, using the temperature probe, programmed vent fan time etc.

Yes, occasionally I have to check the manual.............Rod.

The Apollo vehicles had rows of toggle switches that looked like they came from the local NAPA parts store. When they got ready to fire the rocket to send them out of orbit around the Moon, the handle had broken off of that one. After a tense night at NASA,trying to figure out what to do, they stuck a ball point pin in the switch to fire the rocket, and all went well.

:)

https://youtu.be/LyUN40weqIk

That thing about the pen reminds me of a cultural difference between us and the Russians back then. We spent over 1.5 million dollars back in the heyday of the space program and set up a research program to provide our astronauts with a pen that would reliably write in zero gravity. The Russians chose to use a pencil.

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Originally Posted by Dave Anderson NH

That thing about the pen reminds me of a cultural difference between us and the Russians back then. We spent over 1.5 million dollars back in the heyday of the space program and set up a research program to provide our astronauts with a pen that would reliably write in zero gravity. The Russians chose to use a pencil.

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This story is actually apocryphal.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/a...ion-nasa-spen/

However, its moral is valuable: That the best solution may be the most obvious and needless obfuscation gets between you and your objective.

However, there is also value to scientific and technological endeavors even when the objective is not entirely rational. How many great engineering minds would be developed in the quest for a "space pen" and how many of them would go on to make other invaluable contributions to humanity? I doubt it can be quantified.

I volunteer at a homeless youth shelter and we try to keep them going to school and off drugs and such, and one kid complains all the time "When am I ever going to use this calculus/physics/history/french?" And I say "Most likely you won't. But that is not the point. You learn it not because it if useful but because the exercise of learning it is useful."

RE: the microwave

I have a similar one with about a hundred buttons. I use literally one of them: "add 30 sec". I just keep pushing it until my thing is hot.

My wife bought one of those trendy instant pot things and she is always trying to convince me to use it. I say "I don't know how" and she rattles off a series of buttons and instructions while fill a pot with water and turn the stove on . It is pretty much willful ignorance on my part to demonstrate my contempt for trendy consumer gadgets.

My microwave has about as many buttons. My solution was to figure out the ones needed for my cooking (numbers and start) and ignore the rest. The only time any of the other buttons are read is after a power failure and the time needs to be reset.

jtk

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Originally Posted by Günter VögelBerg

My wife bought one of those trendy instant pot things and she is always trying to convince me to use it. I say "I don't know how" and she rattles off a series of buttons and instructions while fill a pot with water and turn the stove on . It is pretty much willful ignorance on my part to demonstrate my contempt for trendy consumer gadgets.

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I dunno...IMHO the Instant Pot is a gift from the Baby Jesus: replaces the rice cooker, the crockpot, and the pasta pot, does their jobs faster and more consistently, and frees up a bunch of badly needed storage space. Admittedly it's the only "infomercial" device I've ever seen worth the money, but, yeah, it's the best $125 I ever spent on a kitchen widget.

And yes, it has way more buttons than necessary, but you can ignore most of them. :)

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Originally Posted by Lee DeRaud

I dunno...IMHO the Instant Pot is a gift from the Baby Jesus: replaces the rice cooker, the crockpot, and the pasta pot, does their jobs faster and more consistently, and frees up a bunch of badly needed storage space... :)

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Unless your wife buys 3 of the things! ;)

along the 'best money spent' and 'too many buttons' discussion:
Attachment 414774
I love boiled eggs, egg salad, etc-- I got an ad email from Copper Chef recently, selling these for a whole $8.
And there's all of one button on the thing, the power button...
you put a measured amount of water in for how you want your eggs, add eggs, put the lid on, push the power button and it 'boils' your eggs, and shuts off when it's done, set and forget. And it cooks them right, at least so far. I bought a bunch for Xmas presents and for the RV's.

One button, and I dont' have to remember it's on. My kind of cooking :D