Enthusiast vs. Consumer

[eeccrraaiigg]

Today I was repairing a few PC's and doing some IT work and it occurred to me that it was pretty hard to switch my mindset from enthusiast to the average consumer. Plus not let my preferences get in the way of what needs to be done. It's something that I need to do daily and I was just wondering if anybody else experiences this??

[Oshino Shinobu]

I often find myself explaining things in ways that are difficult for the average consumer to understand. Being the world of acronyms that computers are, it's often me using an acronym that's second nature to me but most average consumers don't know. I find it's most frequent with networking stuff. It seems to be an area with a distinct lack of general knowledge beyond entering a WiFi password. 

[CatXice]

i know what you mean i did this earlier

"hey babe u should get a new laptop with a ips display an ssd and maybe yoga if its not to much"

the look of pure confusion greeted me 

[eeccrraaiigg]

haha I definitely have felt everyone of these at some point, especially with explaining things to consumers, I often over explain and tend to confuse the consumer which can have detrimental effects,I have to stop myself and try to put in terms that an average person would know, often using metaphors for other general use items... I find that is very helpful to them to understand how things work together

[Mira Yurizaki]

If a person wants to believe I'm a wizard with special computer fixing powers, I just roll with it. I don't explain anything to anyone unless they specifically ask for it and show some interest in it. As far as I'm concerned for them, ignorance is bliss and if they're happy, I leave it at that. A computer is a magic box that does things.

[VerticalDiscussions]

13 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

-snip-

Networking is usually the part that consumers care the less. They just more bandwidth from the ISP and they want it in a reliable way xD. 

[Ithanul]

Be glad you don't do help desk.   You learn quick the majority are not tech savvy in the slightest.  What is bad, some peeps have Master degrees and can't operate a PA system.  Also, they think you should be able to pull a scanner out of thin air, have an unlimited supply of CDs and copy paper, and fix everything wrong when they can't get to a site (even if said site is not part of the network).

 

1 hour ago, VerticalDiscussions said:

Networking is usually the part that consumers care the less. They just more bandwidth from the ISP and they want it in a reliable way xD. 

Yeah...the majority have not a clue on how a network runs.  Like one tech teacher said, most view the boxes as mystical items that manage to transport their documents to another person.  Hence, the running joke was calling them vodoo boxes or magic cubes.

[BuckGup]

I do this all the time on everything. Why buy the cheap version that will just do the job and not last as long when you can get one that is more premium and last a life time?