It was one of those weeks last week at Hackaday’s home office. My mother-in-law handed me her favorite power bank and said “it’s not charging”. She had every expectation that I’ll open it up, desol…
I’m very reluctant helping people out, especially with computers. It stems from my mother, I used to fix her computer, and whenever it wasn’t working afterwards “it ins’t working right since you did somethin on it”. At some point I told my (and my wife’s) parents that they’d be better of with an Ipad. They just work, and when they don’t, I don’t have a clue since I don’t know shit about them.
Don’t feed the bears. I usually fade into the background when my non tech circle brings up a tech issue they are having. I know them well, they have the wherewithal to figure it out.
Why? They have also demonstrated a learned helplessness about tech that is insatiable. It’s better for them and me both to let them flop about until they find the resolve to solve it for themselves. After all, that’s how I became an ‘expert’.
I’m very reluctant helping people out, especially with computers. It stems from my mother, I used to fix her computer, and whenever it wasn’t working afterwards “it ins’t working right since you did somethin on it”. At some point I told my (and my wife’s) parents that they’d be better of with an Ipad. They just work, and when they don’t, I don’t have a clue since I don’t know shit about them.
Don’t feed the bears. I usually fade into the background when my non tech circle brings up a tech issue they are having. I know them well, they have the wherewithal to figure it out.
Why? They have also demonstrated a learned helplessness about tech that is insatiable. It’s better for them and me both to let them flop about until they find the resolve to solve it for themselves. After all, that’s how I became an ‘expert’.