I’ve gotten a fantastic response to the column Dumbing Down of America in PCMA.com. You can read it by clikcing here. One of the comments in the forum I found quite funny. Here is the post:
Every industry has it spate of stupid user questions.
I used to administer a web site for a travel agency / call center that specialized in cruise vacations and there was an email that made the rounds amongst the staff of stupid questions that were repeatedly asked of cruise ship tour operators and guides.
I used Google to search on “stupid questions humour travel ” and found the folowing
Top 10 dumb questions asked by cruise passengers.
10. Do these steps go up or down?
9. What do you do with the beautiful ice carvings after they melt?
8. Which elevator do I take to get to the front of the ship?
7. Does the crew sleep on the ship?
6. Is this island completely surrounded by water?
5. Does the ship make its own electricity?
4. Is it salt water in the toilets?
3. What elevation are we at?
2. There’s a photographer on board who takes photos and displays them the
next day… the question asked…”If the pictures aren’t marked, how will I
know which ones are mine?”
1. What time is the Midnight Buffet being served?
via R. Dirk
hehehe
Good one
So the Moral of the story is Sink or Swim.
John:
Excellent article in PC mag.
In all fairness
I don’t think people are that dumb.
Your just very bright, well educated, have an excellent comand of the english languge, and you have been doing this stuff for a very long time. Your an expert in your field.
Google is not the end all of end alls. Many times Google provides endless roads of useless information. Some times 46,918 pages of it. Its so much easier for the average moron to ask John a question than waste hours in the back roads google.
So John keep smiling and be glad the average dumbbell writes you even if its a stupid question.
“Is it salt water in the toilets” isn’t exactly a stupid question. Some ships don’t carry separate fresh water for use in toilets. They’ll suck the water out of the ocean to fill the toilets. Then, when they’re flushed, they go into a septic tank for later extraction.
Using this method can save a ship from carrying thousands of gallons of fresh water which would just end up in a septic tank somewhere…
Why have a blog, when you got this dynamic forum going on John?
Although http://discuss.pcmag.com wasn’t responding and your blog seems to be up and responsive 100% of the time. I just got it pulled up, it took like 2 minutes though.
I scoped this at the forum:
The real problem lies with the computer professionals themselves. They have for many years lived an insular life, communicating with a select few of like-minded enthusiasts and fellow professionals, attending geek-fests with fellow geeks, and reading acronym-laden, jargon-filled publications to keep current (or in your case writing for those acronym-laden, jargon-filled publications).
You guys are like gearheads standing around looking at a 427 Chevy for an hour with a blower on top that sticks out of the hood and reading Hot Rod mags all day. Sorry, I meant looking at the pictures. The tech business is all about selling people little plastic discs for 10 or 500 bucks a pop and then selling support and solutions to tell them how to use it to make life more rewarding. The internet fills in all the gaps and keeps it all up to the second fresh while the masses wait to see what a big tech guru will say next. The dotcom boom went bust because the tech journalists didn’t know what they were doing and just kept blowing hot air to make the bubble get bigger. The only industry more screwed up than high technology may be the airlines. It’s not the passengers fault. The internet is a big virtual mess, databases are cracked and security is like a joke. This is from the people who were developing the paperless office. You can find everything you don’t need on the internet and some stuff you don’t know you want. I think Compaq had the line, ‘everything to the internet’ some years back. That all worked out with everything to HP and the rein of Carly and the solutions industry was born. Google is the new leader of the solutions industry with this digital lost and found. Get rich searching for solutions and blowing bubbles. Google In and Google Out guys. I have a way of saving time by not using Google and I find I get more done. I may start an ideas for rent ad soon. I saw a business model for renting music online. Maybe you can rent some music John.
While these may appear stupid, give credit to the person asking that they would like to know something. It is only stupid if YOU know better. I’ve never been on a cruise ship so many of these questions might appear to me as legitimate.
As I often asked at my last job, “when is the 9:00 meeting”. Does it sound stupid? Not if the meeting was, as usual, postponed until a later time.
I will often use “stupid” questions just to get a reaction from people. Such as “remember that day it rained?” There is no answer except the silly reply any one may put to it. And any silly reply is what is expected. In fact, the sillier the better.
Then there are the standard questions for the rookies:
Get me a can of red and white striped paint,
I need a piece of wire about so long full of electricity,
The glass hammer to nail some windows together,
It takes a left-handed screwdriver to open this computer.
I feel your pain.
I had a pet theory for a while that we were the new Black Magicians of the post-industrial age. People approach me like I’m some sort of shaman, capable of slaking the thirst of the mysterious gods for putting fear into the hearts of the meek and the sinner alike.
But really, it’s just a complex system like anything. I still marvel at how hard it really is for me to pick up a new piece of software. It’s always been this hard, I am just less and less willing to do the work.
I’ve always ascribed the stupid questions to fear and intimidation. So many times I have helped to solve a problem simply by standing next to them, acting concerned about their well-being, while they solve the problems themselves.
As far as I’m concerned, nobody’s gotten around to fixing the basic problem: computers are hard to use. Just because we’re good at it, doesn’t mean anything. In 1988 when I got my first Apple IIgs, I figured that all the complexity would eventually fall away, that the masses would push toward the simple platform, the straightforward implementation, the software and hardware that were well-matched and most stable. I was wrong. Instead, the geeks managed to force people to learn it.
Recently, I’ve set my hopes on the PlayStation platform. I’ve always like the Playstation: any computer with two buttons on it and no operating system that can run everything from Tekken 3 to Galaga wins my heart. How hard can a word processor really be? Or a spreadsheet? Heck, add a database, and you’ve got yourself a computer that doesn’t crash, is small, has two buttons on it, turns off when I push the power button, and costs less than $300.
But what do I know? I’m just an end user.
Jim
I must take issue to your words that IT people live insular lives, only talking to each other (that was the gist of it, I think).
For around 15 years I’ve done my utmost in order to be able to communicate to everyone that didn’t know a thing about computers. In fact that was THE main motivation that led me to this career – having noticed how poorly people understood computers, I made it my ‘mission’, so to speak, to help everyone out. Yup, that’s how this 20-yo-fresh-out-o- university thought back then!
I’ve worked as a helpdesk for a big part of that period, and mostly I enjoyed it. However, I have to say, many people ARE stupid. That’s not their fault, but there’s worse than that – stupid and LAZY people! As soon as they see a helpful IT guy they’ll just dump their work on him and go do other stuff. Next time they have the same problem, they’ll just call again. No effort to learn the solution. No effort to actually try and solve the problem first. No effort, period. So I really don’t think it’s our fault, Jim. We’ve been doing the best we can for YEARS now, its just that many people just DON’T CARE about learning this tech. Computer knowledge is always listed as a requirement in all new job postings, but no company I know of actually screens for that knowledge, and then we IT people get the burden of ‘teaching’ those people over and over and over and over and over and over and over again! Always with diminishing budgets, reduced headcounts and poor salaries.
I agree, of course, that there are people like the ones you describe. However I tend to think they’re very few and confined to sysadmin roles where they can just live in their own electronic caves and never come out to see the light. I’ve worked for one of those Asperger’s, and left as soon as I could. But that’s not the rule. I always say to anyone who’s considering a career in IT – working in IT isn’t working with computers, it’s working with PEOPLE!
And most ‘users’ are clever people. They just have their jobs on their minds. And this IS a complex technology.
I agree with about 98% of where you’re going, Daniel. My new Mac Mini is close to being that digital appliance Steve Jobs talks about — though, he’s really looking for something simpler, like an iPod.
Admittedly, I’m one of those guys whose been around almost as long as John [in computing — on Earth, I’m ahead]. Still, I ended up with the first Mini in New Mexico. I turned it on and looked at OS X for the first time. The critter hooked up to my network easier than anything I had trying to go the other direction. I moved over my personal stuff, first. It took one free download to make me confident about moving all my work stuff over a week or so, later.
It’s so easy, I find myself sitting in front of it a couple times a day, saying to myself, there must be something else I need to do, here. It’s so easy.
I expect Jobs and Apple to continue making it easier — now, that I’ve finally gotten round to really looking at what they’re doing. I want them to buy TiVo and build a Home Media Center [inside something like a Mini] with Wi-Fi something as part of it. I’ll buy one. Another digital appliance like my TV set.
Oh, and the guys who offer that piece of freeware I needed — NeoOffice — so, everything for my part-time job moved over from M$oft Orifice to the Mini — I sent them $46, this week. A reasonable portion of my Social Security check.
Well, not being a computer junkie, I am enjoying to like the computor more and more especially for searching information.It seems that it is harder for me not to be on a computer with greater frequency. On one hand it can be considered a marvel of ingenuity the the variety and numerous applications possible. As a late comer to computor use, although both of us have been around for quite some time; fortunatly or unfortunatly not until recently did my interaction with the PC become solidified. As a result of the modern day PC many became wealthy, justly or unjustly, it not for me to decide.Like anything else, new ways are found to increase performance and capabilities, and end user involvement. The PC certainly can make things easier for people especially in dealing with large amounts of data, but in reality it is nothing more than a tool, there is no magic but a manipulation of circuts.Looking at the computor in this manner has made me more cofortable in dealing with it.This is not to say that it is easy and anyone can program or disign circutry in order that someone like me can use it.I have agreat and deep respect for those indivuals that do, no doubt about it, it is fascinating and sometimes I envy them.This being said that does not mean that I’m a total idiet ither, and not capable of reasoning and qustioning information.The upside to this phenomena is quicker information and data processing, as well communication even for the little guy. The downside is that more jobs are lost; maybe it is a consequence of technolgy. In the long run because of the computing capilities,less and less humans are needed to perform tasks.I suppose people can more quickly and easily complain to each other why the lack of jobs.Efficiency means downsizing= no jobs.Obsilence by simplification.
I can’t possibly imagine what kind of people would ask these questions… This is hilarious, it looks like cruise ships have their own share of humor.