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This is a much more fun public conversation than some of the 2025 topics we've endured. What's curious is many people don't even have the intuition to plug things into the hole they fit in. I assume technical literacy has only gotten worse as usb-c has become more standard and bluetooth more streamlined.
Derek Ross's avatar Derek Ross
if you’ve never worked in tech support, it’s hard to grasp just how non-technical most people really are.
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I consider myself above average in technical abilities but I was humbled hard the other day at work. I had to get a HDMI to DP replacement cable for my monitor and when I plugged it in nothing happened so I assumed it only worked one way and told IT I needed a new one. The IT guy came to my cubicle, switched the input and it lit right up πŸ˜‚. I was so ashamed, he must’ve thought I was a moron.
Recurring topic of frustration amongst the so called tech people of all levels. And a way to distinguish themselves from so called normies. Having worked in various so called tech support roles over many many years on different levels with different demographics and educational backgrounds I can only observe that people think differently. And that’s normal. And people (re-)act in different ways when stress level rise. And that’s normal. Even though with my experience I’ve caught myself sometimes with the simplest of seemingly easy to solve tech situations not getting anywhere. Also the magic of just being present with the client/normie often just solves the tech issue. It happens to the best of us and my attitude by now is to stay humble because other people are better at other things than me/us. πŸ’₯
I was half the asshole once. I was working a Network Operations Center helpdesk for a while, and one of our field techs called in (after hours on a weekend) saying his laptop is busted. Now, I was no rookie, I'd been building my own computers for a decade, but this was one of our top field technicians, so I dutifully created the ticket. When he typed, it just printed garbage on the screen. He went online, found his motherboard, and found a post discussing the same problem, which turned out to be a KB9 keyboard chipset error. The laptop needed to be replaced immediately for an important job tomorrow. I called the on-call manager and conferenced him in. After 10 seconds of the tech explaining, the manager asked if he checked NumLock. It was fixed. Scariest words I ever heard: "Gentlemen, we will discuss this on Monday morning. *click*"
One of my first jobs was remote help desk. I got really good at assuming they know nothing and walk them through each and every single click Or push hard to remotely connect when they can't follow basic instructions. One time i picked up my personal phone like with a greeting like a work call, It was at that moment i realized i had to move to something else or risk turning into a robot.
Younger people today are as bad as older people were a decade ago. Smart phones, Chromebooks. These kids don't even know what a folder is, they don't know how to navigate files, and google don't work the way it used to, on YouTube nothing but slop that comes up when you're looking for tutorials. It must be stressful for tech support with this new generation. I can imagine them saying things like "but chatgpt told me it wasn't that so I'm not checking that" Or just not understanding how to navigate things and needing to be hand held the entire way