LuKreme wrote:
On 23-Oct-2009, at 22:16, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
Sure, a lot more people ignorant of computers buy Macs. Are you
going to argue that?
Yep, because I see ignorance is pretty even across all computer users.
PC users are just as stupid, and often more stupid than any Mac user.
Back in the 90's I worked in tech support. I had calls from people who
were angry their windows system was "calling them invalids" when they
typed the wrong password and got an "invalid login" error message.
That's a new one, cool!
I had
a windows user who complained that their coffee holder had broken and
spilled coffee on their keyboard. This one took a while to figure out,
but the user had been using their CD drive as a retraceable coffee cup
holder. I had windows users from corporate accounts send a XEROX of a
floppy disk when they were told to send us a copy of the disk. I had
people who sent 20+ page faxes over and over and over again. When asked
why they explained that the fax simply wouldn't go through because they
still had the original. I could go on for DAYS.
Those three I've heard of before.
Stupidity and cluelessness is not confined to any particular class of
people, it's truly universal.
Not for everyone. Some people actually care about being educated, they
really want to know how things work, they really want to know the
truth of things, and not be misled by a pile of baloney.
When given a choice I will always choose to educate the user, rather
than give 'em a shovel of dogcrap because it makes them go away faster.
I have found that some people don't like this, and in fact will resent
it mightily. Those customers of ours like this that represent a small
amount of revenue I have no mercy on - I would prefer they go away if
they don't like being told what's what. Ultimately, keeping them costs
us more in support than we ever would make from them. Those customers
of ours that are large amounts of revenue (fortunately not many) I
make sure to assign someone else to deal with them since I know enough
now to know that I can't talk to them.
I've also found that life is much more pleasant when I avoid the
ignoramuses who are proud of being ignorant and I reach out towards
the people who want to be educated.
YMMV
As Albert Einstein said, "There are only two things that are infinite,
the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."
Variants on that line have appeared throughout history. It's a shame we
haven't evolved beyond that.
Ted
