While I certainly agree that many products are not designed to respond to users' abilities, there is a flip side to this coin: a society that doesn't actually value self-improvement, education, and learning will lead to designers having to create products that are ever more accommodating, which in turn will expedite the decline of the population.

I learned how to search a library card catalogue in high school (probably around 1978-79). Knowing how to choose words to look for, which requires taking a few moments to think through exactly what I wanted to find and how best to "classify" that. It's far easier on Google today than it ever was in the 70s. But the training I got back then is still absolutely crucial to me today.

That basic research skills are no longer taught scares the crap out of me, because it's a skill that's even more valuable today than it was back then.