Considering my general lack of technological expertise, I’m always happy when I figure it out. And by “technological”, I don’t just mean Internet stuff.
I’m the kid who took the front door lock apart in our apartment then couldn’t figure out how to put it back together. Or blew up pottery in the junior high school kiln, and created furniture with first one leg, then three legs, uneven.
Interestingly, I was actually good at taking metal shop in 9th grade because the tools were more precise.
My first cellphone was like the early computers. Start also meant stop. The red button meant to start. Because I was/am a late adapter, the instructions are “Do this just like you did it on your earlier phone.” But I didn’t have an earlier phone.
I have a FitBit-like device. It’s never been used. In fact, where IS that thing?
Workaround
When I first started my blog in 2005, it had no photos. Blogspot/Blogger wanted us to use a product called Picasa to add photos. I could NEVER suss it out. But somehow I stumbled upon a workaround. Whatever I can do technologically is usually by trial and a lot of error. So I’m really impressed with folks such as Arthur who can fix actually his blog.
My little victories cause me oversized pleasure. Back when I was working and had interns, I showed at least two of them how to search for text using Ctrl-F. Those savvy young folks didn’t know that?
My daughter was trying to print a label, but it was coming out with gaps in the text. I downloaded the file, and printed it; it was fine. Of course, she then found a file my wife wanted to be printed but I got the same error, even after downloading. She changed the text color and it worked.
When I was helping to plan my FIL’s funeral, the videos came to me in Dropbox, which I could view but the guy putting the service together could not. The download, then send, worked that time.
I muddle through.
Apart from people under, say, 30 or so, all computery technological stuff has to be learned—we didn’t grow up with it. Most of us, I htink, do best when we can migrate what we know to a new setting.
For example, the reason I can fix my blog when things blow up is because I learned useful stuff when I was young(er) that serves me well now that I’m old(er). For example, I can edit the HTML code in my log because I learned to use coding when I used an olde timey wordprocessing program called Wordstar in the 1980s. I still have to look up how to change or fix code in my blog, but I at least basically understand what I have to do because of that earlier training.
In January 2011, you published a post about “useless skills”. I wonder how those “useless skills” help us in our modern tech world. What ones help you?