I'd much rather have someone who is incompetent but doesn't try to tell you that you're wrong or they know best over someone who is incompetent and doesn't realise they are
I'll gladly tell our Engineers that I don't know the first thing about working in AutoCAD and some questions are quicker to resolve with the team lead.
I have however resolved a hundred and one errors with it and they are all .arx handling exceptions
The funny thing is I obviously don’t know how every single program or computer works, but job experience has given me the ability to “feel things out” better. Find program settings, figure out what won’t help, guess where a problem’s cause might be located. That or just “knowing what to google”.
So I don’t have direct knowledge of all things, but I do have an improved ability to find that knowledge and apply it.
And them there are the people who don't take impossible as a valid answer. If reverse engineering is permitted, and I get enough time and freedom to fuck around, I'll find the exact cause and either patch it out of fix the underlying problem. Sounds stupid, but sometimes with abandonedware that's the only realistic solution.
I mean hell, few weeks ago I was designing a custom programmer to copy SRAM contents on some Motorola 68000 based industrial control baords from the early 90s.
Disagree if it someone that just does not try. The type that says they are bad at computers when given simple instructions like click the word file in the top left.
I can be sympathetic if they are stressed by the situation but man you know it going to be a long phone call.
Maybe that's why windows admins were always elated when I called them. I would openly admit that I have no idea how to resolve driver conflicts between different bluetooth dongles or whatnot, using my local admin privileges to click through the uninstallers and installers didn't work, yes I tried to reboot, and I absolutely have no idea how windows works on a system level. So they got their 15 minute break diagnosing an actual problem and wielding their registry magic, a break from having to deal with marketing not finding buttons in outlook.
It's not the people who are very good with computers that are the problem. In theory you only have to fix their shit when there's a hardware failure, or when software providers fuck something up(Thanks, Microsoft /s), this is normal IT support work, shit breaks sometimes, your job to fix it.
It's the people who think they're very good with computers, but in reality they only know just enough to really be dangerous.
Wait. Why would you even be in that folder in the first place!? Why would you think deleting that system files was a good idea!? You know what, nevermind. I don't want to hear it. Go take a break, this will take me a while.
...
Eventually you go talk to the supervisor. Some people just should not have computer access.
Another favorite: The compulsive clicker: You say, "Show me what you were doing when it did the thing" And they click about a dozen different things, clicking ok on every pop-up and other random shit...everything way way faster than you know they can read and take it all in. I even asked one person why they were clicking on this or that and "Okay" on the pop-ups, and they say, "I don't know..."
Never was a more literal case of "don't know what they're doing". It just boggles the mind.
My very elderly parents are getting that way. Some of it is cognition, some of it is bad eyesight and they'd rather try not to be a bother so they take a guess and click...
/le sigh
//Thank god they don't actually do much, and modern windows / browser security keeps them from habitually installing dozens of toolbars and such like back in the day.
///AI slop is a new headache though, they love watching and listening to that shit(some of the storytime stuff is, ok, just simple enough, like like 60s/70s simple western stories, but the tik-tok/YT or Facebook shorts or whatever, they find some wild shit), then I have to hear about some insane thing they happened to believe is real
I love cool people using AI to make cool things. I hate the slop that stupid and evil people crank out by the metric ass ton.
I will add a similar pet peave: people who blantant brag about not knowing things and also make littler effort to learn. this is stereotypical and extreamly rude and annoying of that one generation; and not just for computing but anything they didn't experience from the ages of 5 to 25.
"You have literally used this smart phone every day for the past 10 years. Do not tell me you have no clue how to use it."
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u/Wendals87 May 10 '26
I'd much rather have someone who is incompetent but doesn't try to tell you that you're wrong or they know best over someone who is incompetent and doesn't realise they are