Exactly. The more things you do to restrict users so "it's safer for them", the more reckless and stupid they'll become - "because $security_feature will protect me" - and they won't ever learn anything. On the other hand, if we give them the freedom to make mistakes, those that do will learn from them. Instead of trying to block "self-XSS" or telling everyone "don't listen to anyone telling you to paste something into the URL bar", we should be encouraging them with "if you don't know what it does or don't trust the one who told you to do that, then don't do it - or find out what it really does." That last part is particularly important, since it encourages curiosity and that motivates learning.
I understand that many people would just want to use something and not want to learn all that much, but I feel we should also not be encouraging this "lack of thought" mentality either.
Exactly. The more things you do to restrict users so "it's safer for them", the more reckless and stupid they'll become - "because $security_feature will protect me" - and they won't ever learn anything. On the other hand, if we give them the freedom to make mistakes, those that do will learn from them. Instead of trying to block "self-XSS" or telling everyone "don't listen to anyone telling you to paste something into the URL bar", we should be encouraging them with "if you don't know what it does or don't trust the one who told you to do that, then don't do it - or find out what it really does." That last part is particularly important, since it encourages curiosity and that motivates learning.
I understand that many people would just want to use something and not want to learn all that much, but I feel we should also not be encouraging this "lack of thought" mentality either.