Don't pretend you know when you don't. (Geeky and computer-related)

The BBQ Pit
1

This has been a rant that has been ranted a thousand times, I am sure. By people who have suffered much more from it than me. But here goes:

I am not really a big computer geek—after all, I’ve never put together a PC, I don’t program, I only have a vague idea about what a “bus speed” is (but I know that more of it is a good thing). But, dammit, I know what I don’t know (usually) and I don’t think I put on airs. I don’t want to be talked down to (because, believe it or not, I do know a little about some things), but I will admit when I am out of my league. If you know more than I do, by all means, tell me and educate me. But if you don’t know jack shit, there is no shame in admitting it. Because there’s no shame in not knowing everything about computers, after all. What is so difficult about admitting that you don’t know something?

But I swear, I have seen more than a few people (usually it’s women, I don’t know why) who try pretend to know more than they do about computers. And they are huffy about it too.

For instance, at my last two workplaces, I am one of the resident “computer enthusiasts”. Not an expert, but enthusiastic. Give me a reason to ramble about Photoshop, the Internet, or what OS you are using, and I’m there.

So when I encounter someone who claims to be pretty knowledgable (perhaps indicates that they could teach me a thing or two), I start to ramble enthusiastically and ask them questions.

Here’s a generic example of what I’m talking about:

Huffy Woman Who Says She Knows A Lot About Computers: “Well, I have a computer. I do a lot of important work on it.”

Me: “Wow, that’s great! What kind of computer do you have, Mac or PC?”

HWWSSKALAC: “Uhhhh…Compaq”

Me: “Oh, so you are using a PC. What Operating System?”

HWWSSKALAC: “Uhhhhhh…”

Me: “Windows 95? 98? XP?”

HWWSSKALAC: “Yes”

Me: “What processor speed? How much RAM?”

HWWSSKALAC: (blank look, getting annoyed) “Uh, I don’t really know that, I will have to ask my husband. But I DO A LOT ON MY COMPUTER AND I KNOW A LOT ABOUT IT.”

Listen, it’s really OK if you don’t know. I believe that you do a lot of work on some computer programs. A lot of people don’t know about the inner workings of their computers. It’s no big deal not to know. That’s not the irritating part. The irritating part is when you give me the “huffy” look and act as if you are the biggest computer genius ever, when in fact you can’t even tell me if you have a Mac or a PC.

I was recently subtly “chastised” by a woman who obviously was offended because (after experiencing many encounters such as the one above) I started to assume that maybe these HWWKALAC don’t really know all that much. She told me that she had a computer, had for years. She told me that most people have computers, know a lot about them, but don’t want to talk about them.

OK, that’s fine and dandy. I don’t usually ramble about computers unless I’m given an “opening” to anyway. But then this woman (the one who was chastising me because I am starting to assume that a lot of these people DON’T know what the hell they are talking about) made the mistake of mentioning that she had a Mac.

Well, as a Machead, I had to ask. “What model of Mac? What OS? Hey, if you need any help with software…”

And what do I get? No, she doesn’t know what kind of Mac it is. OS? What’s that? I get the same defensive blank look and half-answers as I get from the others.

Oh please. Just admit it, you don’t know. Give me that eyes-glazed-over-bored and please-don’t-talk-about-computers look and I’ll take the hint. I don’t want to bore you with stuff you have no interest in and don’t know a shit about. But when you act all huffy when I assume you don’t know, while in reality you DON’T KNOW, well, what do you expect?

Sheesh.

2

The problem is that some people just don’t know what they DON’T know. For example… I like Shakespeare, and I know the number of plays that he’s written, but I don’t know the story of all of them. In other words, I know what I don’t know.

For some people, when it comes to computers, they don’t know the true extent of the complexities of their machine. RAM? Hard drive? Operating system? Motherboard? Mysterious jargon that doesn’t affect them. Some people think that they’ve learn a lot when they figure out the difference between the “computer” and the “monitor”.

It’s not a matter of them not being able to admit they don’t know… they just don’t know that they don’t know. They have no inkling of how much information there is beyond the tiny tidbits that they’ve been able to absorb.

3

Yeah, I am sure you are a right. And truth be told, I’ve met those folks too. They are not usually the “huffy” ones. They are fine. That’s not a problem.

But damn—the “huffy” ones must KNOW that they don’t know when they have to grudgingly admit (when I ask them my RAM/CPU/OS questions) that their husband takes care of all that stuff. I mean, really, if he has to take care of that stuff because they don’t know how to do it, wouldn’t that give them the hint that maybe they don’t know?

4

It’s something I’ve never understood, myself. Why get huffy when you can learn about it instead? Obviously you want to be able to parade the knowledge around, so why not learn from someone who actually knows?

Of course, I read O’Reilly books in my spare time. I’m probably miles away from the huffy people’s mentality.

5

I think that when people first start to learn about computers, they often learn so much so fast that they begin to feel like technogods in comparison to the uninitiated. They may not know exactly how the computer works, but they learn how to download movies from P2P before they come out in theaters, which surely impresses their friends and boosts their egos.

When confronted with someone who actually knows what s/he is talking about, I guess they just get defensive. They don’t realize how much they don’t know, and they probably feel stupid and embarrassed.

The more I read about computers and the more my interests branch out into different computer-related fields, the more I realize how little I really know. I become awed and humbled by the complexity of these wonderful, little machines and all the amazing things you can do with them.

6

I understand it, I think.

For many people, computers are a Big Scary Thing, even now. They’re very complex machines to most of us, even those who use them all the time.

Whenever new technology - say, for example, television back in the day - comes around, it’s a mystery to everyone but a few knowitallniks. So when one of us “common folk” acquires a little knowledge about that technology, we tend to guard it passionately and exaggerate it. We think that if we know a little about them - i.e., how to turn them on without killing them - then we must somehow know a lot about them, because we know more (from our perspective) than others with whom we interact on a daily basis.

To put it a better way - let’s say you work in an office with 10 people, and of the 10 you’re the one who knows the most about computers. This doesn’t imply that you’re an expert; it just means that compared with the other 9, you know something about PCs.

However, compared with the other millions out there with computers, you don’t know anything more than How Not To Crash the Computer.

So our hypothetical worker gets a swelled sense of importance because he or she is the Big Kahuna of PCs among a school of know-nothings and therefore insists he or she must therefore know everything about them.

Which is why they get properly flummoxed when you ask them about RAM, processor speed, and so forth. The other nine in the office never asked such questions!

7

Really, this is a big problem, stupid people don’t know they’re stupid.

8

I don’t see where your problem is; these people are most amusing. All my funniest calls from when I worked dial up tech support involve those types of people. There’s nothing like the following exchange to put a smirk on my face:
“Don’t talk down to me because I’ve worked with computers for 40 years and know everything about them…”
“Okay then, have you checked your modem settings?”
“My whu’?”

9

I’m working tech support for a DSL provider this summer, and I can tell you that the people we love are the ones who come right out and say that they don’t know what they’re doing: they will usually follow instructions and get their problem fixed.

We fear and loathe the ones who want to tell us “Yeah, I already checked the x y and z and don’t need to do that again.”

10

If I ask a question about a computer, it isn’t unusual for the computer savy folk to immediately begin throwing jargon at me and looking vexed when I request explanations. What’s worse are the computer savy folk who sit down at my machine to demonstrate something and then proceed to blindingly fast whip through a succession of screens with no comments as to what or why, and without giving me a chance to ask what the hell is going on. They then look vexed when I say that I didn’t catch all that. I think such folk enjoy showing off and / or making themselves look good by making others look bad.

And, The Great Unwashed, ignorance of a subject does not equate to stupidity.

11

You could probably say I know a lot about computers (compared to most people) because I work with them every day and frequently teach classes abou their use.

However, I’ve never had a job where I’ve had to say “I don’t know” as often as I’ve had to in my current job. You get humble real fast when you work with computers, software, and networks.

12

Er, not reading the OP, what does that come under? Ignorance or stupidity?

13

50 miles per hour, or the bus blows up.

I remember a friend of mine boasting about how he knew all there was to know about PCs (this was about 10 years ago). I asked him if he wrote his own autoexec.bat files. “Auto Exec? I don’t think I’m running that program. Can I buy it in software stores?”

Man, I couldn’t believe how little he knew, when I actually did know everything – or so I thought.

When I did software support, one of our trainers told us that there were 4 types of people:

UI – unconciously incompetant – stupid and doesn’t know it
CI – conciously incompetant – stupid, but knows it
CC – conciously competant – smart, and knows it
UC – unconciously competant – smart, but not nearly as smart as he thinks he is.

UIs and UCs were by far the worst people to get. They were most likely to go on a shouting spree.

14

If that don’t trip the ol’ Geek-O-Meter, I don’t know what will :slight_smile:

15

I sold cars for a couple of summers (for which I now apologize to the world), and I ran into huffy “I know everything about cars” people all the time.

Once I was going to explain to a customer how Honda’s ABS is better than most because it “fires” the bursts of braking at a faster rate than most anti-lock braking systems do, so I ask this lady, “Have you ever used your ABS?”

Her response: [with extreme huff] “Well, I guess I use it every time I hit the brakes!” [glares at me like I’m the idiot]. If she didn’t understand the difference between using the brakes and using the ABS, she could have just said, “What do you mean?” or something along those lines, but no. She goes with the huff.

16

Sadly, that’s exactly how I got my current job.

17

Well, when I call tech support, I have exhausted all the troubleshooting solutions and fixes, and I have searched the Knowledge Base.

So I usually say, “I’ll be happy to try X, but just to let you know, I’ve already done it once, and it didn’t work.”

  • Rick
18

I encountered one of these people a few years ago. I had just joined a recreational volleyball league, and after we were done one night, a bunch of us went out for a beer. We’re sitting around talking, and I’m being pretty quiet, since I’m the new guy and don’t want to end up putting my foot in my mouth (most of the other people who went out had been playing together for a couple of years).

Another new guy didn’t worry too much about foot-in-mouth disease, and started rambling on about how he did this and that with computers. Alot of what he said sounded like crap to me, but I didn’t want to make him look stupid in front of everyone, so I didn’t say anything.

Then one of the regulars asks me what I do for a living - I replied “Computer programmer”. All of a sudden, the other new guy gets quiet for a couple of minutes, then stops talking about computers, and changes the subject (although he still gave off a “I’m making half this stuff up” vibe, no matter what the subject was). So I assume he did realize he didn’t know as much as he claimed, and was just trying to impress everyone.

19

My computer has 7 rams, the disk is 3 inches across, and it has a SuperGA card and the internet.

I do lots of important work on it.

:stuck_out_tongue:

20

God bless the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. I love psych journals. What a beautiful and magnificent article.