I got some for you.

I used to work in the computer lab of a public library. I've met so many people carrying such a profound lack of basic understanding or reasoning skills, that the most terrifying thought was realizing "They drove here."

I put up with that job way too long... It was... So deeply soul sucking I'm still recovering years later. I wish I were joking.

A lot of people who simply didn't read anything presented to them on a screen, couldn't handle the concept of email, and had no idea how to open Microsoft Word, much less type a resume. That was kinda the bread and butter there, unfortunately, but we did our best.

It was a whole lot of "That sounds hard. Do it for me?" And they found all sorts of weasle ways to need constant babysitting without crossing the line of my job description.

Few wanted to actually learn anything. (If they did, I went above and beyond.) They mostly wanted a free butler to do their homework assigned by the government or a lawyer or their job or whatever.

These people are dumb by choice, because they are intellectually lazy.

"Monke, stop being mean to the 85 year olds!" You might be thinking. No. These were like 40 and 50 year olds who would tell me "I'm old school, I don't do computers." Computers were around since way before me! Where the heck were you!?!? (I'm now convinced whenever people say "old school" they mean "no school.")

Some examples:

We used to put big obvious "Out of Order" signs over the screens if a machine wasn't working correctly. I watched a young lady in like her 20s, sit down at that machine, make eye contact with me, see the sign, flip it over, attempt to sign in, then walk up to me to say (yes, in fluent English) it wasn't working.

I had a regular patron always looking for pastry chef jobs. We had to keep her resume, email address, and password on our work machine because she'd show up every week having forgotten all of it. She ended up with one pastry job only to get fired for eating one from a tray on shift.

So she applied to a grocery chain I think (with significant hand holding by a number of staff), and they had one of those basic competency tests like giving correct change and "Click the picture that shows how many apples are left if we had 5 and take 2 away."

I explained the nature of the question but that I couldn't do the thinking for her, and I shit you not this woman in like her early 50's broke down upset that it was all too much to handle. Like, first grade math. She was one who drove there, by the way. In a car.

I had a dude get grouchy with me because I told him he couldn't edit videos with PowerPoint (there was no video editing software on those machines.)

I had people more than once try to get me to help them use Paint or GIMP to alter a scan of a pay stub. (FAT CHANCE!)

They would often try to call customer service reps and hand us the phone. Another huge no.

And these people all showed up to blame their struggles...On me.

...Yeah, I've met people that have made me weep for the species. They have zero curiosity, zero intrinsic understanding or critical thinking or pattern recognition, and they are seemingly content only knowing how to just complain and buy things.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste. And I have seen quite a few wasted minds. It really does break my heart.

Edit: Still work for the library, but in a MUCH better position now. I'm still sad the the weirdest most unhinged people I meet usually want the computer lab though, and I hurt for my colleagues over there...