Re: The rise of the lazy
Posted: 15 Nov 2022 00:07
It's nice to see the varied perspectives on here, I don't start these in the hope that everybody will agree with me, and vice versa. It would be bad if everybody did.
I'll be honest, I see it a lot of it around retro computers, but I also see it in life generally, and whilst I'm a helpful person, I am getting fatigued with the change I've seen in people, and it makes me despair.
It's tiring being a helpful person all the time when people can be so rude and ungrateful.
As to your point @alexh I get what you're saying about people inheriting, and not being enthusiasts like us, but if you're taking up a hobby like this, you need to become an enthusiast, or you're not going to get the enjoyment out of it you might. People want instant gratification these days because modern kit is so reliable, then when they don't get it from a 30-40 year old machine, they get cranky.
I'm happy to share information, look at all I've done on this forum, but some (Not all) of these people just don't get these machines and want answers that will get them going right away without even the merest amount of their own research.
If you really want nostalgia without the pain, then theres an emulator for that. I'd far prefer to help somebody get an emulator going from scratch, than spend hours trying to help somebody with a real machine who isn't prepared to learn a bit for themselves, or at least understanding that it has taken me years to acquire all my skills, something that these machines require. It's like owning an old car, you need to be aware of their foibles over a new car and be prepared to put in the effort, or you'll spend a lot of time on the side of the road broken down.
As for my Dad, god rest his soul, no he couldn't fix an ST, but he would at least have tried to find out some basic stuff himself before admitting defeat.
I even see this at work. I troubleshoot complex app problems that people are struggling with, not by knowing everything, but by following a process. Before we get engaged, we expect that people have done the basics, but a lot of the time they simply don't even look at the logs, and are then surprised when I point out errors in their logs that they could have found themselves.
It's a kind of fast food attitude to knowledge where somebody else can do all the work while you enjoy the result, and I simply don't like it, despite the joy I get from helping people.
My solution is simply going to be to refer people to forums, where they might stand a better chance of getting the help they need without expecting me to Google/Bing/<insert search engine here> it for them.
Of course anybody on here will get my help as ever.
Damn it, what I was hoping to be a short reply turned into another epic rant, sorry folks, I'll shut up now (I do feel loads better for getting it out of my system though)
I'll be honest, I see it a lot of it around retro computers, but I also see it in life generally, and whilst I'm a helpful person, I am getting fatigued with the change I've seen in people, and it makes me despair.
It's tiring being a helpful person all the time when people can be so rude and ungrateful.
As to your point @alexh I get what you're saying about people inheriting, and not being enthusiasts like us, but if you're taking up a hobby like this, you need to become an enthusiast, or you're not going to get the enjoyment out of it you might. People want instant gratification these days because modern kit is so reliable, then when they don't get it from a 30-40 year old machine, they get cranky.
I'm happy to share information, look at all I've done on this forum, but some (Not all) of these people just don't get these machines and want answers that will get them going right away without even the merest amount of their own research.
If you really want nostalgia without the pain, then theres an emulator for that. I'd far prefer to help somebody get an emulator going from scratch, than spend hours trying to help somebody with a real machine who isn't prepared to learn a bit for themselves, or at least understanding that it has taken me years to acquire all my skills, something that these machines require. It's like owning an old car, you need to be aware of their foibles over a new car and be prepared to put in the effort, or you'll spend a lot of time on the side of the road broken down.
As for my Dad, god rest his soul, no he couldn't fix an ST, but he would at least have tried to find out some basic stuff himself before admitting defeat.
I even see this at work. I troubleshoot complex app problems that people are struggling with, not by knowing everything, but by following a process. Before we get engaged, we expect that people have done the basics, but a lot of the time they simply don't even look at the logs, and are then surprised when I point out errors in their logs that they could have found themselves.
It's a kind of fast food attitude to knowledge where somebody else can do all the work while you enjoy the result, and I simply don't like it, despite the joy I get from helping people.
My solution is simply going to be to refer people to forums, where they might stand a better chance of getting the help they need without expecting me to Google/Bing/<insert search engine here> it for them.
Of course anybody on here will get my help as ever.
Damn it, what I was hoping to be a short reply turned into another epic rant, sorry folks, I'll shut up now (I do feel loads better for getting it out of my system though)