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What are some things you think tech people presume others know, and know how to do? (lemm.ee)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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It's helpful to take a few steps back from time to time to reassess where we're each coming from on our knowledge of tech (or anything) to better communicate.

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[–] 6 points 2 years ago (1 child)

Here's the difference you're probably not understanding about your self: people don't need to know everything about everything, and they couldn't if they tried.

A very small part of my job involves lubricating large industrial fans. Easy enough. What grease should we use? Hang on to your fucking panties

Lube or grease? Lithium-based? Urea? Composite? What was used previously? What should have been used previously? Have you ever done sampling? What's the vibration frequency?

Did you know there are people with PhD's in grease composition?

I bet you never even realized that was a thing.

So no, I don't know what TCP/IP means, or what port and protocols are or what the hell a subnet mask is. I don't even know what I don't know. And that's okay, because YOU know. Doesn't make you any smarter than me, any more than it makes a grease expert smarter than either of us.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago

    Nothing I said was critical of anyone, any set of skills, any profession. I'm glad that you have specialist skills, everyone does because no-one can know everything

    I was responding to a particular question about technology, and how non-techies approach it. I explained in another comment that this complexity in technology is fundamentally different from many other fields of everyday experience

    If the industrial fan stops working, they call you, and somewhere between the power point and the air they want to move is the problem you can fix and diagnose

    If someone can't see their cat photos, it could be anywhere from their device to their network, their ISP to the server, the programs on that server, the other server that holds the photos... Like with the fan they know the power is generally ok because the lights didn't go out, but from that point you actually need some conceptual model of the complexity to even know who to call

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