On Wed, 8 Aug 2001, Lynn Glessner wrote:
> As a newbie myself, I found that page hysterical. Of course I also spent a
> while working on a service desk, so I understand about how to ask questions
> :) "It doesn't work" is my pet peeve too.
>
> I can't imagine anyone being offended, and I really don't think there is any
> tension on this group. The vast majority of the "senior" posters seem very
> nice, far above average for newsgroups.
I did technical support for like 10 years at one place (don't worry, it
wasn't the only thing I did...), and you definitely will learn patience of
a sort even Yoda couldn't teach. I think the most rewarding aspect of it,
though, is walking someone through a problem who is so obviously clueless
that even copying a floppy disk taxes their skills (I really did have
someone on the line who was this new to computers), and at the end of the
conversation they are screaming excitedly "It's working! It's working!"
That makes it all worth it.
But, as so many have pointed out before already in this thread, there's a
big difference between someone who genuinely needs help solving a problem
versus someone who refuses to think for themselves and try to work out
their own solutions before asking for help. In some cases, a person can
work and work at a problem and just can't get it to work, and only needs a
second pair of eyes to look at it and say 'Oh, you forgot the extra pair
of braces' or 'You should be adding those values, not subtracting them'.
I think that's what they call "Peer Review".
-- Brett
http://www.chapelperilous.net/btfwk/
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Harrison's Postulate:
For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism.
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