I think one problem for non-techie people engaging with computers, in the sense of knowing what’s wrong and how to deal with them, is the fact that software errors are *extremely* baffling and the interaction (or infighting) between Windows and whatever software is running can be very confusing. When things go wrong it is frequently unclear which bit of software is stuffing things up. The usual response is to just turn the damn thing off and see what happens. Resetting works a treat for electrical/ electronic appliances, why not computers – the thinking goes.

Great blog. Added to my bookmarks.

It’s the corporations that don’t have this excuse. Nearly everything they do touches computers in some way. Do you think the finance folks add numbers by hand anymore? Point of Sale is handled by computerized tills that send the transaction data back to HQ to be crunched by more computers. Inventory data is all stored electronically. HR records are computerized. Payroll is often done by direct deposit. (They get quite unhappy when you ask them to generate old fashioned checks!)

As a geek, it has long been drilled into me (over 20 years) that I need to understand the business that I’m supporting. I have worked in several different industries and have made substantial efforts to understand them, so that I can write my software better to solve their business problems. I have rarely found the favor returned by business folks.

That said, the main point is really about continuing eduction. In the 21st Century I don’t think we can expect to learn stuff at a school and then have that make do for the rest of our working lives — in any field. Things move to fast and we all need to be able to pick it up by osmosis.

Maybe we need to be teaching people “how to learn” rather than “how to do skill X”.

Perhaps your rant would be more appropriately directed against business schools that graduate students without teaching them the knowledge they need in this century.

… asking my geek friends questions along the lines of ‘I’m having this kind of problem with windows’ tends to get me answers like ‘Nobody uses windows, it’s a pile of crap’.

… is almost exactly why I said:

Geeks usually get this wrong, and berate “stupid users” for not knowing how the technology works.

Apart from “nobody uses Windows” being demonstrably wrong, that response is a combination of arrogance (I won’t even bother considering the question asked) and ignorance (in many cases it would be extremely expensive, if not impossible, for someone to move their work to a different platform).

On the latter point, I have clients whose entire business is run on an off-the-shelf vertically-integrated application for their specific industry. Moving from its Windows environment is not an option without writing a completely new application (tens of thousands of dollars) and completely re-training all of their staff (ditto).

More and more I reckon there’s a market for information aimed at small business owners or individual users that’s not about the technology and wee-whiz factor as such, and not funded primarily by the vendors, so it has a chance of being neutral.

Lots of good thoughts triggered here. I shall return to them.

I’ve also discovered that asking my geek friends questions along the lines of ‘I’m having this kind of problem with windows’ tends to get me answers like ‘Nobody uses windows, it’s a pile of crap’. Which may well be true, but if it’s the environment you’re stuck with, it doesn’t get you very far. I really think there’s a market out there for training People Like Me who will be making decisions about what to buy. I get very frustrated with geeks who make the assumption that I’m stupid.

Another client avoided having to spend thousands on a custom membership management system by linking their simple, existing membership database to MYOB with just $500 of programming.

@Quatrefoil: Good question. I shall take that as an on-notice one. Immediate but less useful answer would be “Teh Internetz”.

Know the difference between shrinkwrap and custom-built software. Sometimes a task can be automated with an Excel spreadsheet or a copy of Quicken. Other times you need to hire programmers or buy software from someone who writes it for you. You need to be able to make a judgement as to when that’s necessary, and have a good idea of how long you’d expect a software development project to take and how much you’ll need to pay.

It may be costly to get someone in to write the software to handle sales and ordering for your little shop selling hand-knitted Etruscan snoods, but if you try doing it in Excel you’ll quickly fall in a heap forcing your entire business to fit into rows and columns, but buying a generic inventory program off the shelf won’t help you deal with the tricky bits involved with the different grades of Carthaginian yak wool and their effect on knitting time.