looking for the name of some "tech" "user" "info" effect.

[Galenbo]

Hi,

At a family party, I was asked: Hey, I just got this new Tablet, can you configure it?

*Of course

*After some clicking of mine (accept, blablabla, yes, accept,...), the owner went awey to get a drink.

*then I needed the name and passw of his wifi network, went to ask him, got it after 30 minutes from another family member...

*then I needed his gmail name and passw to sync, so went again to him, got info of some other emailaccount, On his smartphone I saw an existing gmail account/profile but he was sure to never had used that.

*I tried to restore the gmail account, but for that I needed access to his other emailaccount, so went again to him.

*This didn't work out, I had enough of it, gave the tablet to him and said: internet works, here, look, click click.

What's the name of this effect? I felt like falling in the middle of an existing project (all the info was there at the beginning with the wifi and smartphone) and felt all alone with no info.

It made me somehow think about Brooks's law. The result is that maybe they think I asked much questions, just to get internet working. Maybe next time I'll say I'm not able to do that. Only some microprocessor programming, some android development, some modbus tcp programming, but no tablet unboxing and power up.

 
 

[SArepairman]

Oh my, I sure do hate predatory behavior from people seeking to nab some free tech support. Just tell them your programming language is solder (and get ready for plumbing requests)!

[c4757p]

Assholishness?

When people want help with things like that, I always tell them they need to stand by in case I have questions. Oh, you don't believe I will? Sucks to be you then.

[Six_Shooter]

Assholishness?

When people want help with things like that, I always tell them they need to stand by in case I have questions. Oh, you don't believe I will? Sucks to be you then.

Yep.

I usually take it one step farther, I usually get the person to do it themselves, with me guiding them. I would hope that the next time they need to do something they will be able to do it themselves, or at least be able to get through most of it.

There are a few people that I won't even bother trying to teach how to do that kind of stuff, because they just don't care enough, or just don't understand how easy a lot of it really is.

[Kjelt]

I think everybody that has some sort of tech karma has had these kinds of experiences.

My biggest problem is my niece calling me late at evening to fix something on her computer through the phone (she lives >100 miles away), then you try your best but soon realize that she is (still) missing the computer experience needed and more important the shared computer language base. Then she (ofcourse) has a slightly different OS that I have at my running computer or an almost obsolete OS and everything is just on another sub-menu then with the current OS and so on and so on, so after one hour you have finally convinced her to go scr@w herself or bring the computer physically to me since this is not working.
Two months later she calls again with a different problem ..... 

[c4757p]

You need to set up some sort of remote desktop system so you can see what's on her screen. The hardest part of helping someone with a computer over the phone is that they have no clue what they're looking at.

I usually take it one step farther, I usually get the person to do it themselves, with me guiding them. I would hope that the next time they need to do something they will be able to do it themselves, or at least be able to get through most of it.

Doesn't work for me. Of course, with my family the problem is usually that they're afraid of the computer. All of them have clearly demonstrated that when they really need to do something now and can't get help, they're quite capable of figuring it out, or at very least finding a way around the problem. But if there's any way at all they can get someone else to either do it or walk them through it, they will, every damn time.

Maybe it's just my family, but they all seem to do this all the time. My grandmother won't add fluids to her car (I don't mean changing the oil, I mean filling it up, or the windshield washer fluid, or whatever), and yet she has done it perfectly well numerous times when her choices were "fill up the car" or "don't go to work today".

[jolshefsky]

What's the name of this effect? I felt like falling in the middle of an existing project (all the info was there at the beginning with the wifi and smartphone) and felt all alone with no info.

It made me somehow think about Brooks's law. The result is that maybe they think I asked much questions, just to get internet working. Maybe next time I'll say I'm not able to do that. Only some microprocessor programming, some android development, some modbus tcp programming, but no tablet unboxing and power up.

This reminds me of two things.

First is that if you are not an expert in a field, you can't discern legitimate from fraudulent information in that field. (I wrote about this once on my blog.)

Second has to do with being someone willing to try to do something without direct experience or training. There are people who live according to "I don't know, but I can learn by trying", and there are people who live according to "I stick to what I'm good at or else I'll break things."

Unfortunately, being a tinkerer makes you look like an expert to someone without expertise and who doesn't tinker. In other words, because you're willing to try rather than simply putting the tablet down and saying, "I don't know, I might break it," you look just like a "computer whiz" who can just make it go.

I think we can take a cue from doctors who get asked all sorts of stuff unrelated to their expertise. "I have this lump, is it cancer?" "Well, I'm a nutritionist, so maybe you should go see your doctor."

In the case of computer and tech stuff, I'm sure they were sold on the promise of it being easy to set up. So when they say, "I can't figure out how to set this up. Can you help?", say something like, "I don't work with that kind of system, but it sounds like they told you it was easy-to-use, so you should take it back where you bought it and get them to help you."

From my perspective, it's about companies misrepresenting their products, and the average consumer needs to realize technology products are not different from anything else:

• if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is
• you can't get something for nothing
• buy things only if you have a need
• people will tell you anything to buy something

[Galenbo]

Indeed difficult situation.

I do like them, (and they give me food+drinks at parties:-)) so I want to help them.
But I feel that their tech-behavour is blocking me from being able to do it.

Maybe next time I'll previously print out a list/form, where they fill in all the details about their accounts and passwords.

I'll configure your Tablet in 1 minute if you fill in my form in 1 hour :-)

[Jon86]

I used to have this problem in my classes a few years ago, the teachers were ones that had literally no idea about the ICT they were teaching, so I ended up doing everyone else's work more than mine. 

[Galenbo]

so I ended up doing everyone else's work more than mine. 

and as a surplus, you will end up with less points, because they're jealous :-)

[Jon86]

so I ended up doing everyone else's work more than mine. 

and as a surplus, you will end up with less points, because they're jealous :-)

Nope, our work was never marked! 

[Stonent]

Come to think of it, I did spend thanksgiving day working on my wife's uncle's laptop.  The screen would just suddenly change from 1440x900 @32bit to 640x480@8bit.

The hard drive ended up having bad sectors but reloading the video driver after that only barely helped.
I've seen this exact behavior on Nvidia graphics that had a BGA that had a flaky connection due to overheating, but never on an Intel GMA 4500 chipset.

[smashedProton]

Assholishness?

When people want help with things like that, I always tell them they need to stand by in case I have questions. Oh, you don't believe I will? Sucks to be you then.

Yep.

I usually take it one step farther, I usually get the person to do it themselves, with me guiding them. I would hope that the next time they need to do something they will be able to do it themselves, or at least be able to get through most of it.

There are a few people that I won't even bother trying to teach how to do that kind of stuff, because they just don't care enough, or just don't understand how easy a lot of it really is.

I have a better idea.  Hand the tablet to his/her kid.  The kid would have everything configured in less time that you could do it.

[AndyC_772]

[Galenbo]

...I have a better idea.  Hand the tablet to his/her kid.  The kid would have everything configured in less time that you could do it.

I don't think so. There are reasons why the "project" was given to me. Or better: not given to the kids this time.

Nice cartoon :-)

[mrflibble]

Maybe next time I'll previously print out a list/form, where they fill in all the details about their accounts and passwords.

Only if you want to keep doing this. What works far better IMO is to let the problem owner do it him/herself, while you provide assistence. That accomplishes multiple things. 1) they are actually involved with the problem solving 2) HOPEFULLY they will actually learn something for next time 3) YOU are the one that gets to walk away to do something else, not the other way around.

If they walk away while you're trying to fix it in such a social situation, I would be sooo done with it. You walk away? *drop all* Guess it's not important then, time for other things. yay!

By now I have outsourced quite a bit of family tech support to my sister. Yessss, progress! 

[envisionelec]

Indeed difficult situation.

I do like them, (and they give me food+drinks at parties:-)) so I want to help them.
But I feel that their tech-behavour is blocking me from being able to do it.

Maybe next time I'll previously print out a list/form, where they fill in all the details about their accounts and passwords.

I'll configure your Tablet in 1 minute if you fill in my form in 1 hour :-)

Not difficult. You're at a party. Nobody is going outside to change the brakes on your auto or drain the swimming pool - it's not what parties are for. Socialize. If someone asks you to configure anything ever, just lightly touch their shoulder and say, "I think you're at the wrong party. I'm here to have a good time."

[XOIIO]

I know how that feels, I just want to be left to my own stuff, not help you out. Do no family members know what google is?

[Stonent]

...I have a better idea.  Hand the tablet to his/her kid.  The kid would have everything configured in less time that you could do it.

I don't think so. There are reasons why the "project" was given to me. Or better: not given to the kids this time.

Nice cartoon :-)

[Galenbo]

... I just want to be left to my own stuff, not help you out. Do no family members know what google is?

Here's my problem: I DO want to help them out, I DO want to configure their product (they always ask gently)
But their own general behavour is blocking my ability to succeed.