The Ignorant Investor

Picture this: You're working on a simple document, and to divide one section from another you hit return and then insert 3-4 dashes together on the new line. Without any prompting, Word automatically changes this to a single, thick dotted line that goes from margin to margin. You try highlighting and deleting it, but that doesn't work. You try back spacing over it. No luck. You hit return above it to see if you can at least move the line further down in the document and keep working, but Word interprets this as a demand for a second line (as though one dotted line is never enough for anyone). So now you have two lines. Two ugly, black lines sitting in your document without any obvious way to get rid of them.

You check the menus, the needlessly complex help file, autocorrect menus. You know the answer is probably obvious, but you don't know where it is. You start wondering why the software writers would have the system automatically do something without giving the user the ability to easily undo it. And then it hits you: Because they never thought about it. They just kept tossing in features without ever thinking about how they might be used. The software can do just about anything, but in a cruel joke, that complexity means that the casual user is going to get hopelessly muddled whenever the software decides to get jiggy with it and start doing you favors like putting TWO FREAKIN LINES IN YOUR DOCUMENT THAT YOU CAN'T GET OUT. It's like having a word processor modeled on somebody's impulsive, out-of-control brother who is always getting drunk and then pissing himself just at the most inopportune time.

I hate you Bill Gates.