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Ready for a stupid user story...
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"I put in new plugs, cleaned the data injectors, and changed the cache filter. It should run a lot better now. Here's your bill..."
While I'm not a real Renaissance Man, I still try to have a passable amount of knowledge in any field that I come up against in life...and if I don't, I pick things up pretty quickly.
We don't expect them to know how to program or access advanced functions (which would be the football fan equivalent of knowing player names for football teams of past years, or knowing game scores for all the Super Bowls), but some of these things are more like not knowing what a touchdown is, or how to score one.
D1gger
Diamond Member
My office manager retired a couple of years ago, but when he was here he simply refused to believe computers could add / subtract / multiply / divide numbers correctly every time. He had a series of monthly spread sheets he maintained on the computer, but simply refused to give me my reports before he printed them out and did all of the math on an adding machine. He would then give me the computer printout, with the adding machine tape stapled to it to prove that the math was right. As many times as I tried to convince him that he didn't need to redo the math on the adding machine, he simply couldn't stop doing it.
Jeff7
Lifer
So let me guess, the moment she probably started crying was when she was shown the wonderful new SUM function.
You should've screwed with his adding machine so that it would do math wrong. Then he says, "Aha! The PC IS wrong!"
Then you use your adding machine and PC, and prove that his precious adding machine was in error.
He'd probably need therapy.
It's probably low on blinker fluid, too.
I think the Xerox Alto had a spreadsheet function by 1974. They just didn't know what to do with this wonderful new technology, so they never started selling them en masse.
He was probably running Excel 2007 on a Pentium 1.13GHz PC.😉
You should've screwed with his adding machine so that it would do math wrong. Then he says, "Aha! The PC IS wrong!"
Then you use your adding machine and PC, and prove that his precious adding machine was in error.
He'd probably need therapy.
dainthomas
Lifer
Or just told him his adding machine IS a computer.
MotionMan
Lifer
Not everyone (anyone?) uses myspace or football knowledge for a living. The secretaries and attorneys in my office literally use the computer to make their living. However, almost zero of the secretaries or attorneys I have worked with over that past 12 years have knowledge beyond even the most basic tasks (and most of those they do wrong (like spaces instead of tabs).
And G-d help you if move one of their desktop icons!!!
I am just amazed as to how little they know about the most important tool in their lives. I am even more amazed as to how little motivation they seem to have to learn more.
MotionMan
LtPage1
Diamond Member
I'd say a good 60% of otherwise very intelligent people who didn't grow up with computers experience this phenomenon whenever they look at a glowing screen or other electronic device: They lose all common sense, all knowledge of the rules of logic, and all pattern recognition skills. It's really quite amazing.
Exactly - I guarantee that if you took some IT guy who knew nothing about football and gave him a job as a sports reporter, he'd learn pretty damn fast (and not just what a touchdown is or team names)
If you have a job requiring you to use spreadsheets, you'd better learn how to use at LEAST their elementary functions!
A sports reporter who knows something about the sport they cover? Great idea! 😉
Thing is, she doesn't know that she doesn't know. (ok, I'm giving her the benefit of the doubt)
I'll use myself as an example. I've used some programs for years before one day stumbling across a feature I'd never noticed before. (Usually minutes after complaining to someone that the software doesn't do X) 😱
Now people who know and have no motivation to learn, like Motion Man pointed out, I have no pity for. At the same time, are we in the light doing a good job leading others out of the darkness?
It's frustrating to try to help someone only to find out they're one of those who refuses to learn, and those types make it tempting for us to give up and laugh instead. (and those are some damn funny stories). Sure, they haven't learned how to run spreadsheets yet, but we've failed to teach them.
MotionMan
Lifer
I do not know what it is, but it not age or prior experience with computers. I know people in the generation of my parents who are quite proficient at computers (who were not in IT or engineering). Then there are people whoa re my peers or younger who cannot copy a windows file from one folder to another.
I also think that many of these people are lazy.
MotionMan
Okay...here is one.
One of our teams called me up because they needed to run an update on some template files which are used in Word in part of a custom application. An email was sent out regarding it, but there was still someone using it so they couldn't update the files or something.
So anyway I jumped on the server and figured out who it was and went to go tell them to close (which is funny because other people were all amazed that I could tell who had the program open).
Anyway to even get an interview at this place you are supposed to have to pass an Excel or Word test - I don't think the staffing agency quite did that.
So I ask this person to close Word and then I was talking to someone nearby and happened to notice what was going on:
1. User hits the close button.
2. Dialog comes up and asks to save.
3. User hits "Yes."
4. Save dialog comes up.
5. User hits the close button on the save dialog.
6. User stares blankly at the screen for several seconds.
This process repeated for at least 10 times before finally she said "No" to the save prompt. I didn't say anything. I wasn't quite sure how she did her job, but anyway.
One of our teams called me up because they needed to run an update on some template files which are used in Word in part of a custom application. An email was sent out regarding it, but there was still someone using it so they couldn't update the files or something.
So anyway I jumped on the server and figured out who it was and went to go tell them to close (which is funny because other people were all amazed that I could tell who had the program open).
Anyway to even get an interview at this place you are supposed to have to pass an Excel or Word test - I don't think the staffing agency quite did that.
So I ask this person to close Word and then I was talking to someone nearby and happened to notice what was going on:
1. User hits the close button.
2. Dialog comes up and asks to save.
3. User hits "Yes."
4. Save dialog comes up.
5. User hits the close button on the save dialog.
6. User stares blankly at the screen for several seconds.
This process repeated for at least 10 times before finally she said "No" to the save prompt. I didn't say anything. I wasn't quite sure how she did her job, but anyway.
MotionMan
Lifer
I remember someone explaining the difference between "computer people" and "non-computer people".
Computer people learn processes and are able to graft what they learned about one process onto other events to make them able to perform tasks they have never done before. Sort of how people who know Windows generally know how to maneuver around almost any Windows program with a general idea where to look for what they need. the more advaced processes you know, the more advanced new process you can do.
Non-computer people learn steps for specific tasks. They know how to open Word, create a document, save it and print it, but they do not take that experience and apply it to using Excel.
An example of this is when someone explains how to do something to "computer people", they take in the "steps" but also analyze the "process" so that they do not need to memorize the steps. Sure they learn the steps, but the steps are just part of the process they have just learned.
When someone explains how to do something to "non-computer people", they try to learn the "steps" without thinking about the "process". That is why they tend to say "This is too complicated" or "That is too many instructions". They try to learn it like a telephone number, digit by digit, so once you get past their short-term capacity (even if they are writing it down), they give up (and you end up with "the blank stare").
I am not sure if that is the best way to explain it, but I think you get the idea.
My father-in-law, a retired CPA, knows how to do things with Excel that I did not even know it could do. That is only because he spent hours and hours looking in the manual (someone looks at the Excel manual!?!) and calling MS. He then has those tasks written down and he follows the instructions step by step. However, when he upgraded Office, some of the steps changed slightly (and I mean slightly) and he was lost. He literally started all over again.
When I went over to his house some time later, even though I had never performed those tasks before, based solely on his prior notes and my innate abilities 😉 , I was able to fill in the blanks on all of the remaining tasks in mere moments.
Instead of the ability to fly or see through walls, I can operate a computer. 😉
MotionMan
Computer people learn processes and are able to graft what they learned about one process onto other events to make them able to perform tasks they have never done before. Sort of how people who know Windows generally know how to maneuver around almost any Windows program with a general idea where to look for what they need. the more advaced processes you know, the more advanced new process you can do.
Non-computer people learn steps for specific tasks. They know how to open Word, create a document, save it and print it, but they do not take that experience and apply it to using Excel.
An example of this is when someone explains how to do something to "computer people", they take in the "steps" but also analyze the "process" so that they do not need to memorize the steps. Sure they learn the steps, but the steps are just part of the process they have just learned.
When someone explains how to do something to "non-computer people", they try to learn the "steps" without thinking about the "process". That is why they tend to say "This is too complicated" or "That is too many instructions". They try to learn it like a telephone number, digit by digit, so once you get past their short-term capacity (even if they are writing it down), they give up (and you end up with "the blank stare").
I am not sure if that is the best way to explain it, but I think you get the idea.
My father-in-law, a retired CPA, knows how to do things with Excel that I did not even know it could do. That is only because he spent hours and hours looking in the manual (someone looks at the Excel manual!?!) and calling MS. He then has those tasks written down and he follows the instructions step by step. However, when he upgraded Office, some of the steps changed slightly (and I mean slightly) and he was lost. He literally started all over again.
When I went over to his house some time later, even though I had never performed those tasks before, based solely on his prior notes and my innate abilities 😉 , I was able to fill in the blanks on all of the remaining tasks in mere moments.
Instead of the ability to fly or see through walls, I can operate a computer. 😉
MotionMan
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