Especially this time of year when people are panicking for whatever reason, people are travelling, people are coming and going, people are buying laptops, devices and phones and the majority of them don’t know how digital files or folders even work (or where they are in a digital system).
If you know anything about computers … just pretend you don’t know anything like everyone else. It will save you so much work and headaches this time of year.
And don’t get soft either … cute girl asking for help? NO … old grandma has a new laptop? NO … your dying relative has a new phone? NO! … your two year old niece has a new tablet? NO! … your drug dealer wants to lower your debt in exchange for fixing their PC? HELL NO!!!
your drug dealer wants to lower your debt in exchange for fixing their PC? HELL NO!!!
nuh uh, if i’m getting paid (getting paid in reduced debt is still paid cuz it’s money i was gonna give him anyway) i’ll do whatever
Yep that’s a contract and I work for those
I was legally contracted to say yes.
At least it was satisfying to answer NO when the question involved their personal (not a company one) acer cheap mall laptop filled with mcafee, bloatware and socuh combined with the slowest low capacity hdd in existence.
Hell NO
My new excuse is, “I only know linux, I don’t know anything about windows.”
Stare at their computer blankly
“Wait, they got rid of the green hill???”But that’s where I kept my emails. How do I get back to that hill?
“… don’t you have a cloud or something for going back to the hill ??”
(Actually, ever since NES, he had vaguely pictured computers as being related to the pipes in that Mario Brothers game)
I do that too but only because it’s much easier to help my relatives with Linux than those with Windows.
I even “convert” some people because Llinux is easier for them if I just manage it. I had a neighbor that was using Window on a very old computer, it was slow and choking under the weight of simple updates. Plus, she was always asking me why her computer kept rebooting by itself while it was obviously Windows update. So I installed Mint and all the problems went away.
Anyway I don’t want to have to deal with Microsoft accounts, licenses, office365, the general bloat, the ads, the new versions of Windows… I have enough at work, so if I am going to help on my free time, it has to be on the OS I find easier to deal with.
Is that called “relatives with benefits”?
Step-IT, can you help me with my hard drive problem?
Start talking about logic gates and flip flops and PLAs and FPGA, maybe even throw in few of the ASICs. If they don’t shut up even after that then bring in the big guns and start talking about doping and PN junctions and How BJTs are better than FETs
no uncle steve, that’s commuter science, I know ALL ABOUT PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
“Brother, may i have some IT-Service?”
“No.”
No, sorry, I don’t know what kind of ass-backwards somersault your windows machine did this time. Your word doc is randomly missing every third paragraph? Too right mate.
People need to understand the difference between computer science, information technology, software engineering and Tech Support
ELI5 ??
Generally, but I am likely missing some stuff:
Computer Science: The underlying theory around making efficient computer software (I would consider the hardware side computer engineering)
Information Technology: the process of managing computer software and hardware systems for an organization
Software Engineering: the process of developing software including writing code, prioritizing features / bug fixes
Tech Support: part of IT. Troubleshooting and resolving issues with an organizations hardware and software systems
Computer sciences is mathematics, software engineering is programming, IT support (I’m including infrastructure and infosec here) is making sure that computers run fine for the employees needs.
Don’t let the infosec people hear that you lump them into support. At one of my past organizations they outright refused their workshops to be integrated with the company wide ticketing system. He can use it but not infosec.
and “actually needing Microsoft support but coming to you cause Microsoft doesn’t give a shit about private end users”
Tis is the same
“You know about computers, right? Can you he-”
“No.”
tge moment when you don’t use windows for a few years now, yet your windows mates still ask you for help (i can pretty much always help em)
Alright I’m probably the outlier here but… I like helping people with their IT needs, and I’ve always found the problem solving and praise kinda nice. Maybe it’s just a me thing tho
I used to work in IT, and both then when I was on my personal time, and now, I do not love helping people, but all it takes is someone else doing it poorly would annoy me enough I would end up helping someone
I’m with you but there’s definitely a line that gets crossed fairly often when you help people out with these things.
I actually like helping people a lot, too.
I don’t think IT folks are naturally misanthropic or antisocial, but I personally got beat down so much by wanting to help and realizing they didn’t care to listen, or weren’t willing to learn anything. At all. Even though they came to me with the problem, it seemed they mostly just wanted me to fix it for them with zero understanding required, or to “be emotional at someone” or were lonely.
I also got so tired of being friendly and enthusiastically educational with advising my relatives or friends, only to then watch them completely disregard 100% of my advice they came to me for.
In the former job I’m still putting myself back together from, most of the public peoples who visited me would have been better served by visiting a psychologist / therapist first, but I was cheaper (free). :(
Often when it’s something I do specialize in and I get all excited, that’s when they choose to gloss over and I can tell they just want me to stop talking.
I hate having biases against people, but there very much are definitely “normies” who are threatened by the prospect of having to activate their neurons for the first time since they stumbled out of their highest level of education, and only learned to think when it was forced upon them.
Makes a guy feel pretty crappy. So I’m not as forthcoming with my skillset as I used to be in casual company. Lol
I think what you are describing is teaching not helping. Helping someone is just doing the thing they need help with and thats it. Its not a prerequisite that someone learn something if your goal is just to help them but it is if your goal is to teach them something.
It is nice when people share your interests and want to learn but everyone’s got their own stuff going on and sometimes can’t make room for something new like that.
Except in a minority of scenerios, helping someone do something ≠ doing that thing yourself. It could mean less, or, at times, even more than that.
Take the familiar example of helping a blind man cross street. While you do cross the street with him, the fella ALSO WALKS with you and crosses the street on his legs, not yours.
Are you implying you would be teaching that man how to walk?
When you help someone on a computer, they come along with you too, just like the blind guy. And just like the blind guy, them coming along with you does not mean they will be able to do it themselves next time, or that they want to do it alone next time.
This sounds a lot like “only my perspective is correct” type stuff.
imo - you are not the outlier, you just haven’t yet progressed to the mostly inevitable stage where people take advantage of your help, or their spyware ridden dumpster fire of a laptop breaks and they blame you because you “touched it last” - never mind that was 6 months ago and the only thing you did was change the screensaver timeout.
I like helping people, but not with what I do for my day job. Ask me to shovel your driveway or help you move or proofread your emails or anything but more of what I’ve already spent all day doing.
No matter the degree or seniority, the answer is always NO.
What’s a Cimproter?
Relative: You know about computers, right?
Me: I’m not sure. Who knows about computers, really? In the words of W.S. McCulloch, “What is a number, that a man may know it, and a man, that he may know a number?” (if you’ll pardon the gendered language) Now if you extend this to computation…
Relative: All right, STFU, I just wanted to know how to update my Amazon account…
What is a number, that a man may know it?
Lets start with natural numbers and define the integers, rational, real and complex numbers as solutions to certain equations.
and a man, that he may know a number?
Now you asked for to much.
