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, desolder the weary pouch inside, scrounge a LiPo out of some corner of the basement, and have it back up and running before the weekend. And of course that’s what happened, although maybe it looks a little worse for wear because it was hard to open the sealed case without excessive force. Sorry about that!
Then on the weekend, I finally got fed up with the decomposing foam on the face seal on my FPV goggles. It was leaking light all over the place. Of course I could have bought a new seal, but then I’d have to wait a week or so for delivery. So I pulled the velcro backing off, tossed it in the bed scanner, pulled the image up in Inkscape, converted it to Gcode, and cut out a couple seals out of EVA foam on the laser. Not only are they essentially indestructible, but I was able to customize them a little bit, and the fit is now better than ever.
And then, one of our neighbors bought a new garage door fob, flipped the DIP switches into the right configuration, and couldn’t figure out why it wouldn’t open the garage door. Knock knock knock. Using the tried-and-true RF probe that everyone with a scope probe has sitting around, namely hooking the ground pin to the tip and putting the radio device in the loop, it was clear that the sense of the DIP switches was inverted from what it said in the instructions. That was a fun little puzzle.
It was the garage door opener that triggered me to think about how normal people would handle any of these situations. “How do the normies even get by?” were the exact words that went through my head. And let’s face it: we’re not entirely normal. Normal people don’t have a soldering setup just sitting around ready to get hot 24/7, or a scope to diagnose a garage door RF transmitter at the drop of a hat. But these things seem to happen to me all the time. How do the normal people survive? Maybe they all know someone with a scope?
I take it as my service to the world to be “that guy” for most of our friends and family, and I pretty much do it without complaint. “With great power” and all that. My wife is just about as gracious when she’s stuck debugging a parent’s Windows setup, so I’m not saying I’m the only saint in the world, either. Surely you have similar stories.
But last week it made me reflect on how good we’ve got it, and that does make me want to pay it forward a little bit. If you’re one of the people who can, try to help out those who can’t.
My condolences to those supporting family and friends through the Windows 10 EOL.
windows 10 ?
I am still on windows 8.1 for the lone required windows PC. Otherwise it’s all FreeBSD of course.
I just shipped my brother a TPM and pages printed from his motherboard manual PDF.
At least hopefully not consoling anyone who actively used the AOL dial-up service that just shut down (other than for pure nostalgia)
We survived end of Windows 8.x
We survived end of Windows 7
We survived end of Window Vistas
We survived Windows ME
We’ll be fine. Windows 10 won’t crash or refuse to boot because Microsoft ended support. People would be on their own if the computer were still connected to the internet and new exploit is found.
Meh, they’ll do critical security fixes a couple years more than the official EoL.
Windows 10? We’re already using Windows 98 here!
Win 11 is not that bad, just bypass the CPU and TPM check and mount the 11 DVD in the right-click menu and run the upgrade installer. It will ask you to accept the unsupported update. (It’s really just arbitrary nonsense because the 6th-9th gen Intel were practically the same, some were even the same silicon, and I have 5th gen systems with TPM 2.0).
The real trick is de-bloating it to turn off the ads and widgets.
Command to use (Chris Titus Tech’s Windows Utility):
irm “https://christitus.com/win” | iex
There’s also the ARM64 version of Windows 11 that doesn’t have those restrictions.
In fact, it can run the most Windows executables.
Win32 x86, Win32 ARM, Win64 x86-64, Win64 ARM and.. Win16 via WineVDM. :)
Besides Macs with Apple Silicon/Parallels Desktop,
there are a few ARM-based mini PCs available that can run Windows 11 ARM edition.
ARM might be the future of Windows, eventually. So it’s certainly worth a try.
Older versions of Windows IOT and Windows 10 had an ARM port, too.
So there are some native ARM applications out there for years already.
When I got tired of answering my late brother’s calls for help with Windows, I converted him to Ubuntu, and, later, Mint. Calls went from 1 or more per month, to maybe one a year. He was totally computer illiterate, but managed just fine with Linux (after a short adaptation period). The secret was buyimg him a new HDD, pulling his Windows drive out, and telling him he could have it back if Linux didn’t work out. He used Linux happily for about 10 years until his death.
Also, you can “upgrade” to Windows 10 IOT for a few more years of support, great for (the few) 32bit machines you don’t want Linux on.
Free support for a year without changing version.
The burden of being “the guy”. For me it’s been a reluctant journey, initially for myself out of necessity. And I still refuse to gain any skills or knowledge beyond what is needed or out of personal curiosity.
I can probably solve 90% of “normie” tech problems 90% of the time. (Often, by just rebooting their device.) I look at problems as kinda like puzzles and solving new ones adds to my knowledge, skills, ability, etc. So, my growth becomes my payment. I have never charged money (although I have asked for coffee, tacos, and donuts).
The boon in this reluctant Hero’s Journey is a bitter understanding of just how terrible all common operating systems are and how/why, in general, they got that way. Computers (hardware and software) are miraculous turds. It’s amazing they even work most of the time.
Normies have the benefit that ignorance is bliss (especially if they can blissfully throw money at their tech problems). Being “the guy” might seem cool to outsiders, but having bitten into the Apple of Knowledge brings one the knowledge of sin. If the normies knew how the tech “sausage” was made, they would riot.
I find that the existence of “that person” is exactly why I’m reading hackaday. I’m pretty much here to educate myself about all these things that us common people, wouldn’t understand otherwise without “these persons” ! Blogging is a way to share and educate people from their qualifications. It passes on good knowledge.
But there is an ailment that has befallen me, which “normies” go by unaffected: Lots of the stuff (tools / test equipment) that I have gathered will not be used daily and needs some fixing before you can take on the job at hand :)
This a thousand times. I’m amidst a mass de-clutter and on the tail end of, “Well all my stuff is useful…” is a week straight of identifying and managing necessary repairs & replacements of all the stuff I keep to repair and replace things with. 🤦
FAM: “Can you fix my slow laptop? It keeps crashing and is very slow”
ME: “OK, so your kids installed software piracy tools which come with viruses”
FAM: “Kids say you are wrong, they’re younger and know computers better”
ME: (DOES NOT SAY “when I were your kid’s age, I had a job. And the job was with computers. “)
ME: “They’re right. All I know are Macs. You’ll have to bring your computer to one of those stores that will clean it up”
FAM: “But that will COST ME MONEY”
ME: “I only know Macs”.
FAM: “Pffft! MACS are a overpriced junk!”
ME: (DOES NOT SAY “I drive a 20 year old Toyota Corolla, and you’re on your THIRD BMW. Are you really suggesting I don’t understand practical value?”)
ME: “Sure, are but Macs are all I know”. And I repeated this for 11 years since.
They make sure I overhear though “We had to buy the kids laptops again this year, Microsoft let a virus on and all the software on it “expired”. Fixing it would have cost half of a new laptop.”
People use the cop-out “but you’re smart” as a way to not Google and learn. They presume your time has no cost to you, and that you genuinely enjoy fixing things (in the same way they enjoy binging trash TV).
Techies need to show tough love, and say no or feign ignorance.
That ignorance angle only works when the ‘normie’ isn’t smart enough, or doesn’t know you well enough to know it isn’t true. And saying no just isn’t as easy as it sounds if its going to get your Mother/Wife/Husband/etc nagging at you often as to why you are solving the problems you want to solve but won’t solve theirs or their Mothers/Sisters/etc – usually easy enough to just fix it and saves you so much more grief in the long run.
Or tell the example person to choose if he/she wants to believe their kids or you, and then take the computer to the chosen one to fix. A little bit harsh, but the person was harsh first, when implying the kids understand more than you.
Oh in that script I’d just say on line 4 – “well why bother me with this if you already have a ‘solution’ you accept!?” most likely. As if they want my help, probably for ‘free’ they had better be willing to actually accept it.
So depending on just how helpful that “FAM” has been themselves or how far I believe they would go should I ever actually need help they are capable of defines the level of patience I’m willing to go looking for – they would either get that first response in frustration at the entitled assumption they have earned my help for nothing, or the ‘Fine leave it with me, I’ll fix it, then once you are satisfied send the Kids to me to learn how to do whatever caused the issue properly”
But that still doesn’t solve the problem of nagging from the family member that knows you could fix something and have chosen not to in general.
I agree exactly with what you say, just one more take: sometimes people just don’t know how much work fixing this one problem is. They might think it’s something simple, but in reality you need to spend several hours fixing it. If something will take time, tell them how much, you might ask if they would trade some of their free time to you in exchange.
I’m afraid my line would be, “The kids know computers better than me. That means they will be able to fix it.”
The kids saying they know computers better is like someone saying that, because they live in their house, they are better qualified to do plumbing and electrical repairs than a plumber or electrician. Or, because somebody drives their car every day, they know more about it than a mechanic.
Similar stories from me except I do say. If they want my time/effort/knowledge/experience(for free) then they can damn well have my admonishments too.
Similar with askholes: “What phone should I get?” then they buy some PoS and need help? No GTFO.
Ahaha! This is sooo true, that’s literally me!
Thanks for this, cheered up my evening.
Entirely agree with the different OS excuse.
My relief when all the family got iPhones and stayed with Android (I have Google Pixel, so a quite decent phone).
Now I just can’t be of much help.
But people figure it out somehow
The article is right but fails to acknowledge one thing: we’re also enablers of these behaviours.
If we were not around, they find alternatives, just as you quote people buying new laptops every year -> this is a twisted point though, because commercial shops really take advantage of those who don’t know. That’s unethical.
+1
At one point in life it’s better to simply pretend to others that you have moved to Linux or Mac and are nolonger up-to-date when it comes to Windows things.
It doesn’t even implies lying so much, if you simply adapt your own perception of yourself accordingly. ;)
I think that’s the most peaceful way to get out of the affair.
“you have moved to Linux ”
I have….so not a lie.
Call Geek Squad…..you pay them, not me.
True story with my wife’s aunt who got the pop up to call
M$, and DID AND installed remote software. She called me and I said
unplug, call geek squad. Washed my hands of that disaster.
They(Best Buy) sold her a new one and kept the old one…….WOW!
I tried to get her on Ubuntu a few years ago….some folks you just
can’t help.
BTW—-EVERYTHING she does is web-based,,,,,,,but,,,, “needs M$” —OK?!?!
I see. It depends on the people, I guess.
Linux is great, because it scares ordinary people off.
It’s also known to be very nerdy and complicated,
so it is believable to mortals that us weird PC freaks would love to use it.
The only exception to the rule is Linux Mint at the time, maybe.
I noticed that a lot of boomers seem to like it. It’s the senior’s Linux.
It’s the new Lindows, so to say. It’s the Linux that looks/feels like Windows the most.
If I had a kind but dumb -err- “simple minded” family member,
I would be trying to introduce it to macOS. Either on real Mac or a Hackintosh.
Because it’s a compromise, located somewhere between Linux and Windows.
It’s easy to use, has an Unix foundation and no bloatware pre-installed.
It also has merely little malware compared to Windows.
Via MacPorts or Homebrew, many Linux/Posix applications are available too.
The downside is, however, that if you’re a Mac user, too, you’re again the #1 person that’s been called for help.
But again, if the person is kind and not annoying It’s a risk that could be taken..
Otherwise, just let them keep using their beloved Windows (and run for your life).
Some people can’t be helped, they’re resistent to any advices.
And to make things worse, they’ll blame you for their own mistakes.
Sometimes they will even lie in your face.
“No, I haven’t changed anything since last time you fixed my PC”.
When in reality, new applications had been installed, new restore points had been set and device drivers had been changed.
I had such an experience a multiple times.
There was that laptop of an elderly couple for example, that I did install Windows 7 on.
It was a fresh installation with Firefox and a few basic utilities and basic printer drivers.
Not quite two weeks later, I got a phone call about their laptop being broken.
Nothing had been done to it, of course.
When I checked, it was full of bloatware, big printer suits and what not.
As I’ve later found out, one of their boomer friends had been working on it days before I was called.
He apparently knew better than me and had to “fix” the laptop..
Again: Let them use Windows and run!
“If the kids know more, let the kids fix it” would be my instant response. Get up and walk away without another word on the matter
Similar here. Brother comes to me wanting to buy his first computer, for his business he says (he does construction). I ask him if he wants to do anything else with it. No, just his business he says. Do you want something you can tinker with (he likes to tinker with things, not a problem, hence the question) or something that’ll just work I ask. Something that just works he tells me. OK, go buy an XYZ computer.
A month or so later he calls me. Bought my computer, he says. Which model did you get? Oh, I bought an ABC computer from a local clone shop, much cheaper. I ask why he had ignored my advice. The XYZ can’t play my games. Games were not mentioned but I suppose I should have seen that coming. OK, I tell him, you’re on your own. He tells me that he won’t need any help.
A couple of months go by. He calls me, tells me his computer isn’t working, and wants me to go by and help him with it. I remind him of our prior conversation and repeat that he’s on his own.
Sometimes tough love is the way to handle things.
I can relate to that. Years ago a friend of our family asked me
about a new PC for gaming and multimedia and I made a recommendation.
This was in the 2000s and I recommended him an Shuttle PC (a barebone PC) with a Pentium IV
and a real desktop version of an Nvidia graphics card.
Because he wanted a powerful, but compact PC.
I recommended the Pentium 4 (I know it was hot) because he was into flight sims and the CPU had a high single-core performance.
Which was good, because the simulator was older software and didn’t use threading yet.
Anyway, he later had issues with the new PC and it turned out he had bought a cheap net-top PC. A net-top! Laptop hardware in a box!
When I asked him why he didn’t follow my recommendation he argued that he did exactly buy what why I told him.
This made me very angry, because that simply wasn’t true!
Anyway, he couldn’t understand that the Shuttle PC I showed him on a website before was a totally different beast of computer.
That’s when I sweared myself to never ever help that guy again in such things.
When MiL needed a computer for little/no money, I bought a used Mac from the university resale shop. They sold high-end desktops for a song, and since all she did was surf the internet and email, it would handle everything she needed to do. And I could visulaize the dialogs in my head to walk her through troubleshooting. So I assumed.
One day I get a call, MiL: my computer is doing funny things. Me: Can you describe what it’s doing? MiL: Something something and then a window popped up.
Me: What did it say?
MiL: I don’t know, I clicked yes and it went away.
Me: ….
Me: [Suggests troubleshooting steps to try off line]
Later
Husband: Mom bought a new computer. It runs Windows because that’s what all her friends have.
Me: Good, her friends and Best Buy can help her fix it, don’t call me, I already tried.
I took a geology class once and the prof said that ‘If you’re ever cornered and asked to determine whether a gemstone is real or not, find a hammer and say that you’ll have to fracture it because the only way to tell is to measure the crystalline angles at fracture.”
Smart man – I’ve used variations of this (making the repair more problematic than the immediate concern) for decades.
Oh. So you identify with the techy type the article talks about, but you don’t actually act like it…
You speak of tough love, yet you go out of your way to lie to avoid actually doing the work, instead of telling the user how they screwed up, fixed the problem, and telling them how to avoid it in the future.
And if they choose not to listen, well, tough love right?
I’m not even going to get in to the fact that you think you somehow have good value judgement, yet you bought/use Macs.
Gucci might make high quality bags, but claiming they are a good value is ludicrous.
Semi related, UX designers and engineers for mainstream smartphone apps and especially smart TV OS/app UIs, need to do focus groups of over-60s. My parents constantly struggle with smart TV UIs, and honestly, I am sometimes too. Wildly inconsistent UIs (sometimes swipe up to reveal more, sometimes click in, sometimes neither …), sometimes not clear where the cursor is (especially for those with less than stellar eyesight), multiple text entry bars that are ambiguous (looking at you Apple TV).
The old Verizon cable box system from like 2010 was the perfect UI for TV watching: consistent, clear UIs and dedicated remote buttons that always did the same thing.
Indeed, smartphones are awful and I really hate being asked by all the extended family that actually use the darn things way more than I do how to do something because its so unclear. I’ll still figure it out fast enough, but its so frustrating. The smartphone is so often less intuitive than the VHS taperecorder ever was, and those things spawned jokes on their complexity for a reason…
12:00
–:–
12:00
–:–
…
But at least you could still put a tape in and hit PLAY!
Don’t get me started on modern UI design, it’s absolutely awful.
I recently repaired a VHS recorder/player, and watched tapes that had been in the garage for almost 20 years, a real buzz from the past, especially the advertisements.
I recycled my old computer for my parents to access Juno Mail. (Anyone remember that?). Even though my mom couldn’t spell WWW, they hooked it up to dial-up internet. I had streamlined MSIE by getting rid of the “Go” button, since all one had to do is hit enter. It wasn’t until Mom called up with a support request that I realized why that was there: “I’ve typed in a website, now what do I do?”
:facepalm:
Disregarding all the other flaws of MSIE, Microsoft at least had done focus groups with over-60s when they built it.
I shut off the taskbar search box in Windows entirely. Because you simply press the Windows key and start typing.
Sony made a line for kids called ‘My First Sony’. When looking for electronics for the grand parents etc.. my dad and I used to joke that Sony should also make a ‘My Last Sony’ with the same ease of use…
Now (30 years later) he makes the joke on himself
My wife, a clinical psychologist, can remain in business ONLY because she is married to “that guy”. I agree with all those who wonder how normal people survive.
I accept the the challenge of helping friends and acquaintenances because A) It’s just good manners, B) her friends make VERY good iced chocolate brownies, and C) It keeps me up to date on how normal people use technology.
My day job is deeply embedded / industrial data acquisition / control: My “happy place” is in front of logic analyzers and oscilloscopes, so I really don’t have daily interactions with normies’ use of technology.
Perhaps it’s time to reevaluate if you chose the right one- how do iced chocolate brownie friend’s tech support needs compare?
Joking, of course
I find lots and lots of gadgets thrown away at the dump, they’re in the “battery disposal” pile. I take them home, some of them work out of the box, and some of them I have to open up the case and goose the battery above the minimum voltage to get the charger working again.
And some of them I simply have to replace the AA batteries.
This is how normies survive: when something doesn’t work, they throw it away and buy another. It’s astonishing.
I dragged a 4-channel 200 MHz oscilloscope out of the dumpster at the makerspace and plugged it in and it didn’t work right… because it was set to a weird mode. Setting switches and pushing buttons on the front panel put it back into normal mode, and now I own a 4 channel (better) oscilloscope.
Purchased two very expensive 600 watt 13.56 MHz generators on craigslist for thin money, both work, were sold because the units made a weird sound and the owner was afraid they would self destruct. Replaced the fan and the scary sound went away.
I haven’t purchased a new computer in ages, I simply go to the dump and look through the ones people throw away. I can usually find one there with better specs than the one I’m using, about every 5 years I do this. Linux runs very fast if you don’t let your system get gummed up with malware. (A friend, who is a professional EE designer with a modern system, has commented that my home system compiles things much faster than his.)
This is how normies survive: when something doesn’t work in a way they don’t understand, they throw it away and get another one.
It’s astonishing.
Aligns with my theory: normies survive by throwing money at the problem. Be it replacement kit or paying someone to fix it…
If we knew each other, I think you and I would get along just fine!! :-)
Try academia:
I have a Fluke 95 Auto that a lab was throwing out because “it wouldn’t charge” – almost brand new, with all the bells and whistles (and paperwork). These have one of those thick rubber cases so you can (in theory) drop it a few times. Yep – the case had shifted just enough to keep the charging plug from seating correctly. A good nudge and…well it’s still in the garage, though I did put new batteries in it eventually.
A whole lot of other spendy stuff that I won’t mention.
Normies just buy new stuff way more often than needed, and get scammed on shitty maintenance contracts and insurances.
That is how they survive
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked into “that guy’s” office and asked for an education. Over the years that attitude has made me into “that guy” for rafts of other folks. Learn a new thing every morning and nothing worse will happen all day long.
Look at the average person and then realize that half the population is less intelligent than that.
Idiocdracy is my nightmare. It turned out to be an instruction manual. I dread going to bed some nights.
as another commentator already said: normies simply throw stuff away and buy new stuff. my parents’ neighbors got a “broken” phone from other neighbors, who bought a new phone for her 13yr old daughter and I was the designated person to “just fix the old one” when I visited. turns out every Astrology website on this planet was allowed to send notifications in the Chrome APP…
Factory reset for phones. If possible flash a debloated stock OS. If not then connect it to a PC running universal android debloater and let it disable the built in apps. Useless stuff like Samsung store and Facebook, Microsoft Office etc. https://github.com/0x192/universal-android-debloater
I am also “that guy” to a bunch of people, and each of them has asked the same basic question – “what do other people do when they don’t have you to call?” Sounds like the answer is also the reason why the thrift store is flooded with functional electronic goodies I can grab for pennies on the dollar.
This is an oldie but goodie that always comes to mind when I think about being “that guy”: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/in-which-i-fix-my-girlfriends-grandparents-wifi-and-am-hailed-as-a-conquering-hero
I am “that guy” for most of my family and many friends. It was a very busy stretch of years when Windows 7 came out. I had a few older couples at church that I helped routinely and my standard fee was homemade peach cobbler and vanilla ice cream.
I’ll take the normie who gives up over the Dunning Kruger poster child who knows nothing but tries to fix stuff anyway.
I just replaced the shell of a broken Molex connector which would have been a 5 minute job had someone not pumped an acorn-sized blob of hot glue into the chassis in an attempt to stabilize the connector.
Who didn’t get started by taking something apart that first time and not being able to put it back together after.
BTW, did you know that isopropyl is a very good release agent for hot glue?
Isopropyl mixed 1:1 with vodka is also used to cure methanol poisoning. It prevent body from absorbing methanol so it can be expelled with urine. Side effect is it makes you totally drunk – but in hospital it’s okay, they give you plenty of vitamins to stay alive.
Don’t believe everything your AI search engine delivers. No amount of Isopropyl alcohol is safe for ingestion.
Wasn’t there a story about a pack of beer cans that could be used in a similar situation?
Because the “good” alcohol is being processed first that way?
Not that I recommend it, but maybe this little memory makes it easier to find more meaningful information on the internet.
How can IPA be unsafe when it’s used in food industry.
Isopropanol gets metabolized into acetone, which is a normal metabolic byproduct though rarely present in such high concentrations in blood. It’s relatively “safe”, within limits, the idea being that it competes with methanol just like ethanol does, but lasts longer. It makes you pretty sick though.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493181/
Drinking a six pack of beer is a somewhat effective first aid for methanol poisoning, but only to buy you time to get to the hospital.
I’ve been thinking about this as a talk off and on for years. I also volunteer as a pastor /elder at our church, and I find that there are many crossovers between the priesthood and being a tech guru.
Being able to represent computers/technology to people and people to technology.
Teaching disciplines that improve outcomes.
Helping people through the unboxing and setup sacraments
Improving people’s processing so they get what they are looking for
The more technical things are there too, but trying to build an analogy would eventually broken down.
IMHO, false causation. Some of the priests I run into had younger and eager minds.
One particular occasion was a local parish priest, who, obviously with some help from the congregation, had figured out how to set up and run a server. This was in the mid-2000s when such a task for uninitiated was a formidable challenge (nowadays there is no shortage of pre-baked templates to go off of – together with all kinds of AWS services), and programming anything larger than a standalone JS-assisted web page would require some time/energy investment. Eventually he got boggled down by other tasks (the church was expanding, building new, larger mess hall, etc), but I remember our conversations (I’ve studied theology for some long while) and how he had no issues learning advanced stuffs.
Unrelated, another local church’s priest, watching his son graduating with honors, Computer Science major, decided to quit and become a programmer, too. Judging how happy he was last time I met him, priesthood probably wasn’t his calling to start with.
I also recall that The Amish elect their parish priests from their own. While the merits of such are usually mixed, this rules out outsiders and the conflicts they unknowingly may be creating. I admire them for their cohesion, and their devotion to their local congregation, something most of other churches around, sadly, seem to be missing. I admire The Amish for another trait – they carefully review what benefits their parish, and what destroys it, which served them well over 300 years now. Luddites they are not, all have cell phones and machinery, just they are careful with using these (something us, non-amish, should learn from them, btw). I also personally knew the amish programmers who also did the mandatory barn raising (and knew carpentry quite well – using modern tools, no less), so it is a matter of having mind open and willing to learn : -]
Isopropyl also works well for CA glue!
Being that guy… Why do you actually think that is not normal?
It’s normal for me. Those other people, it takes them way too long to catch up.
The issues you describe I call a grandma problem. After I’ve gone through some of the intricate guesses/fixes for software and things i’ve fixed, I wonder what my grandma would do, if she got a thing I’ve just figured out. There ought to be a grandma in every QA dept on the planet.
I use grandma, here, because she is the only one in my family, that I’d want to help and is not vieing for pecking order or pushing out emotional blackmail/guilt.
And besides her cookies are the best.
Should they? Our species has diverse habitats. If members of the species are not able adapt to the harsher enviroments of hard and unforgiving technologies, I thought that nature and evolution was supposed to find a way to remove them from the gene pool, or force a migration of the inept tribes into a different environ having reduced use of technologies.
Was Darwin wrong? Is there some reason that the ignorant should be allowed to thrive in a technological society?
these things aren’t really genetic. for example, my kids, who came from my genes, are absolutely useless at computers. and they have an awful attitude about how to deal with encountering an obstacle. not to insult my kids too much but it’s just, these are attitude / interest / education / experience things and the genetic component is fairly minor.
and also, it’s a dialectic. the environment and the animal are not separated opposites, but part of the same whole. if people can’t hack it in an over-technologized wasteland, the technology is as likely to die out as the people.
I fix my neighbour’s computer.
She sets me up with delicious fruit and repairs my sweater. She is “that guy”, just in other fields of expertise.
In fact, quite a lot of people are. We have one guy in our building who is in the HOA board, rarely does active work but remembers where to find minute details about repair jobs done in 2004. Which saved us literal hundred thousands of euros. Not a sexy skill to have, but very useful to have around.
A friend of mine is … Well let’s say useless for anything like this, but give it to him to organise a nice evening out in the town. Very useful for my mental wellbeing!
yeah that’s the real answer. ‘normies’ know people that cover a vast range of expertise and can generally get a ‘good enough’ result by interacting with the people they know
The best answer imo. So many guys (yes I assume it’s guys) tooting their own horn about how they could, but won’t fix shit for their peers because what’s in it for them? If you honestly believe being good with tech is the only useful skill to have these days, expand your horizon. Often times we overlook what others do for us. Just as some may not appreciate us for our contribution. I say, if I feel genuinely unappreciated, I’m not required to give free tech support, but when somebody does show appreciation and gives something in return, they can expect me to be there when they call. It’s called community and it’s awesome.
“The best answer imo”
Agree. I was about to write something similar.
Recently I watched few interviews with people who were operating in war zones. They were also giving advices for civilians about preparation for difficult times. One of them was getting to know you neighbors. Those old technical illiterate ladies can help with child care. Lady who works in town hall may be great source of information about where help will be delivered (or even decide it will be your district). Former police/military officer can organize local football/wrestling team to patrol streets. Nurses, vets, hunters are equally needed as techs.
Tech people like to brag about how independent they are thanks to their skills but often fail in recognizing what other do for them.
Myself and most of my friends are That Guy. It’s why we’re friends. I’m “that guy” at work in some ways and I can’t just ignore when people ask me stuff they should know better. So I play nice. But I’d also say the amount of ignorance tracks almost 1:1 with inability to recognize the value of other peoples’ time needed to sort out your situation.
.
Then I remind myself I’m a grown up and if I’m average, half the people around me are dumber than me anyway and I’ll never fix that. I’d guess many of the people I work around probably think I like them just fine when I really …. don’t. I think a lot of people around me probably extend ME the same courtesy. So my job is mostly pleasant.
Oh, and the answer to the question asked in the headline?
They know “a guy” :-)
First, props to HaD for using the term “normie” which has been wonderfully popularized by the Wednesday series. I guess it no monger means “man from the north”
Anyway, recently I whipped out my phone and wanted to turn on the lights via the Wemo system when I was presented with a login screen. For probably obvious reasons I fully rejected the idea of having to log into a vendor’s app to turn on and off my lights.
Fortunately a short chat with ClaudeAI later I had a python script that would enumerate the devices on my net and turn them on and off. Then using MIT App Inventor I should be able to put an app on my phone that performs the task.
I honestly have no idea how normies live.
They live like hackers but instead asking Claude they call DougM because interface makes prompting easier and results are better :)
I have fixed out vacuum sealer three times already – two different MOSFETs failed (at different times) and the ribbon cable broke. Most people would throw it out and buy a new one. I consider it both a blessing and a curse that I can fix damn near everything.
But… I think being who we are, we bring a lot of this on ourselves. I don’t know about y’all, but the first thing I’ve ever done since I was a kid when getting anything new is take it apart to see what makes it tick. I’m more willing to buy cheaper, more sketchy things than most “normies” because I know I can fix/upgrade them – and I almost always do.
Besides, in my dot on the map, my shop is pretty much “Emmet’s Fix It Shop” (you younguns can ask the older generation what that is). I run a small engine shop (and a TV shop before that) but I’ve had everything from blenders to vibrators brought to me to be fixed. Yes… I turned down the vibrator job.
Must be tough being so “elite”. What a cross to bear.
I’ve usually been “that guy” for all around me, but much less skilled than Elliot. A few years back, I saw a NextDoor app plea by a lady a few neighborhoods over from me that her garage door was haunted. It would open at odd times of the day and even night without being triggered by her. I offered to come over and check it out. I ruled out any “that guy” neighbors pranking her electronically. Inspected the entire system and didn’t see anything obvious. So I took the batteries out of both her remotes. One day later, the ghost was still there. So went back over there and this time I took her keypad out of the system. 3 days went by and the door never mysteriously opened. Bingo: something wrong with the keypad. I opened up the keypad and noticed one of 10 small circular “clicky” buttons under the keypad numerals didn’t “click”. I guessed it was shorting out somehow. Took the board back to my house and desoldered the one button and then soldered in an extra button that I took off a circuit board that had once been part of a Microsoft force feedback driving wheel. Once I had the new button soldered in, the system worked perfectly and she was extremely happy. Haven’t gotten a repeat call from her for any other garage door problems in the many years since this repair was made. Being an engineer, I do this because I love solving puzzles, even relatively simple ones. And I also enjoy helping people out.
I enjoy helping people, if they will take just a little bit of time to write down what they did, and what the computer/tech device did. If they take for free, something I paid money to get specifically for them after thinking about their needs and skill level, then don’t say things like “It’s not what my firinds have”. Technology isn’t keeping up with the Jones, it’s using something to achieve a result.
Now, my sister prefers Windows because that’s what she learned, and it’s familiar, and she doesn’t want to learn something else. And that’s perfectly fine. Many people prefer WIndows because its familiar, or it makes sense to them, and that’s great. Just don’t tell me my Mac or Linux is crap because you heard it once from someone 30 years ago. Make your argument based on real reasons of abilities/limitations, or even philosophical rationalizations like business practices. Just apply your philosophy equally to all players, is all I ask.
And that’s my philosophy. Thank you for your patience LOL
My family doesn’t call me to fix their computers. I’m 3000 miles away from my family. :)
Now you know why I’m 3000 miles away from my family. :) So, the kids know computers?
Hey have at it….not my circus, not my barrel of monkeys.
Technology serves to make the average person feel powerless. Not really a good thing! No wonder people are so angry nowadays.
That guy isn’t necessarily a tech dweeb. He could also be an auto mechanic or an HVAC technician or an electrician or a plumber. Perhaps no normal person is a master of any of these things, what do they do? What do you do? You call that guy. Having a talent is a gift, sometimes a burden, but something that should be shared humbly. In my 40 years in IT, one thing remains constant, nerds have also lacked humility.
Been pondering this.
Most people have plug and play and if it doesn’t play, they send it back.
Your fpv goggles, average Joe doesn’t have fpv goggles.
Average Joe doesn’t have a custom mesh network but a single basic router box.
They dont fit thier own garage door.
They buy a new car because they dont know how to fix the old one.
Or
In the best case the visit something like a repair cafe.
Last attendance I repaired a very expensive speaker with a single capacitor and previously an expensive fan with a diode.
Both were destined to the bin.
If they’ve got any sense they take their broken kit to the local repair cafe. There’s an international grouping of local voluntary organisations that loosely associate under that heading. A couple of local people with a bit of spare time on their hands and an urge to organise things hire out a cheapish venue (often a church hall) put out a call for anyone with repair skills to come and help, advertise for people to bring along their broken stuff to be looked at, then shake down said customers on their way out for a donation to help cover running costs.
If you turn up you’ll find a bunch of middle aged men who like fiddling with stuff but have run out of their own broken stuff, and a bunch of middle aged women who like sewing but have run out of their own stuff to sew, all willing to give up a couple of hours to the community. Plus it’s nice for repairing stuff to be a social occasion with others nearby to ask for and get help immediately. None of this waiting three days for someone to post a reply on line.
I posted this link on another thread some time back but it got deleted. Presumably because the mods thought it was a link to some commercial organisation. I don’t think anyone’s making money. If they did start to charge proper fees then most local cafes would just unsubscribe and otherwise carry on as they are. See if there’s a local one to you then just turn up with a bag of tools. That’s how nearly all of us got involved.
https://www.repaircafe.org/en/visit/
(Is the idea that men solder and women sew sexist. Of course. But it’s true too. Feel free to go against the stereotypes. Nobody cares.)
Been fixing stuffs for years. Never considered myself “normie”, just “that dude who can figure out how to fix (almost) anything”. Lawn mowers, sewing machines, computers, etc.
HAD stop removing my comments because of secret/hidden keywords within, I am not a tro-ll, nor I am spreading any propa-gan-da. I can edit my own comments.