IT Support

I'm sure many people who have a job or background in computing will recognise the challenge that I'm about to discuss. That problem is relatives (especially elderly ones) and friends who fancy themselves as dab-hands at surfing the web and "social-media" getting themselves into all kinds of bother with wi-fi, printers, the inter-webs and, all too frequently, accidentally acquiring all manner of nasty viruses by clicking on things they shouldn't! The problem isn't the fact that they get themselves stuck per-se but that they know you know something about computers.

The thing that many people don't realise is that just because you work in a particular field of computing it doesn't mean that you comprehend every nook and cranny of the every piece of hardware that's ever been made and ever application that's ever been written! Sure, you will probably know a little more than the person with the problem, but you still may be totally in the dark about how to deal with a particular scenario involving combinations of things you've not encountered before. I've faced this problem many times, for example on more than one occasion I can recall visiting my parents for a nice Sunday lunch only to be informed of a printer connectivity issue at the start of the visit and then, after having my roast-potatoes sent up to the "study" on a tray, still been loading new drivers and rebooting wi-fi routers when it's time to go home! It's a bit like expecting a rotary-engine specialist to be able to fix any problem on any vehicle, from getting a stain out of a leather-seat to servicing combine-harvesters.

I have a new strategy these days, honesty! Whenever I'm asked to "fix" a computer problem for a relative or friend I gather as much information as I can from them and if I don't know the precise remedy then I'll say I don't know how to fix that but refer them to an appropriate Google search-result of suggestions! Then I relax back into the conversation or the roast-beef and Yorkshire pudding! I've re-acquired hours and hours of my life with this strategy over the last few years and the problems still seem to get fixed eventually.