Are you a User or a Consumer?

One of my favorite quotes is, "There are only 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary, and those who don't" (ThinkGeek) It seems we have a common tendency to divide ourselves into groups. This lets us easily compare and contrast our tendencies with others. I propose yet another way to divide people: Users and Consumers.

What is a User?
You know the type. They see something useful in everything around them, even if it was never intended to be used that way. These people are the ones that answer, "Why yes I have a Dingle-Hopper. Did you need a right or left-handed one?" Then rummage through a pile of dusty parts until they find it.

Users collect stuff on the off chance that they will need it later. Old bike parts, plumbing pieces or lumber stacked along the driveway, even useful chunks of code saved off on floppies in case they ever need to write a program in ML again. Each new project a User takes on moves them slightly ahead because they can cut costs by using things they've already accumulated and because the extra materials from this new work adds back into the stockpile for future projects.

MacGyver is the ultimate User. Give him a stick of gum, a paper clip, and a bullet and he can solve any problem.

Users follow the addage to "Use, Repair, and Reuse". These people are tinkerers. The question of why they would want to learn how to fix some rusty old piece of junk never crosses their mind. They often "color outside the lines", espousing creativity over convention.

What is a Consumer?
Consumers live streamlined lives with no room for waste. Any extraneous habits or items are discarded or donated. "If you haven't used it in the last six months (or year or two years) you don't need to keep it around." Consumers would rather buy a $10 item every three years rather than waste the valuable space it takes to store it in the interim.

Comsumers live by the rule of specialization. If another can do a skill faster and more efficiently than Consumer then they will let the other do it and dedicate their own efforts to those things at which they excel." Adam Smith (The Wealth of Nations, 1776) would be proud of these driven, focused people. Capitalism seems to urge people towards a consumer mentality.

Consumers feel comfortable by the structure their way of life brings, but have a difficult time "thinking outside the box" when a new challenge comes around. Their initial reaction is to seek a new specialist for the situation. As a large group Consumers support themselves, but individually they are vulnerable. Their inter-dependence is both their strength and their weakness.

The world needs both Consumers and Users. Each has their place, though they often chafe at the other group's attitudes.

So which are you?