I have to regularly help my aging mother (and sometimes neighbors) with their phones. The damn thing of every manufacturer having their own Android version(s)/skin(s), and UI/UX designers changing the layout every new version of an app, makes me want to violently slap their collective faces with a large trout

And that's why remote desktops became a standard in the desktop support industry.

It is annoying but their ignorance and unwillingness to learn keeps me employed so I try not to complain too much about it. Plus, most of the people I help are generally appreciative and kind so that makes helping them feel like less of a chore. I can also shoot the shit with them for a little bit and break up the monotony in the day. Silver linings and all that

And this is why I left IT. It was either gonna be an aneurysm or a bullet. The meme about tech workers leaving to become farmers is a legit path, my fellow IT workers.

“Now stop scrolling”

user keeps scrolling

“Seriously stop moving”

user scrolls faster

Listen here, buddy. That needs to be labeled "not safe for IT" because it gave me PTSD.

You went past it, not you went passed it. Or you (just) went and passed it. Or you passed it.

!iiiiiiitttttttttttt@programming.dev

I don't use discord. Recently, I tried to get into a community server because what can you do.
They have a bot set up. You get access to an isolated channel and have to confirm you've read the rules by checking a checkbox, whatever good that does. People who use discord may know what I'm talking about.
For the life of me, I didn't get that I have to click the emoji reaction to the post. I write software for a living. I know what reactions to posts are, but they were disabled. Clicking such an emoji to interact with it is a discord exclusive option, usually that opens a list of people who have reacted.
And holy shit was the "community support" dude a dick about it.

Sometimes you just have to be patient with people. It might be the most obvious thing to you, and it's just a blind spot for others, despite everything.

Your clients knew how to use the mouse?!?

and then they get angry and bitch about you being rude, unhelpful and how you "didn't know how to fix the problem".

Remote control is the way to solve this. Non-technical people are not good input devices

Imagine a world where everyone has some CLI for most of the stuff, even if alongside GUI

- How do I X?
- Ctrl+Alt+T and paste this.

(Even though it's not good for security)

Me trying to direct the dude at the gas station to the correct nicotine flavor

I don't narrate clicking and typing directions to people anymore. If you want my help, you stand up and I sit down.

The thing I learned from help desk was a profiency at mastering the mute button.

I feel like that's more to do with age, than tech proficiency.

Definitely felt the meme when assisting my mother with tasks.

Definitely been the meme when a new UI redesign happened that completely bamboozled whatever priors I had to the point that I seemingly could not notice large buttons on a sidebar that I wasn't expecting.

The issue with my dad is that he does thing with computer seldom enough that he forgets. He packs away his laptop and prefer i do the regular things for him. (i refuse this) He could do it more often or write it down. But he is lazy. So he needs directions every time. When he intends to copy or move files, he still drags files, droping it randomly somewhere on the explorer window and making a mess. Then he loudly shouts in frustration, when his files are not where he expects. I keep telling him to not use drag and drop. I should disable that.

This is why modern media players try to find your media based on metadata, ignoring file structure.

I can't remember the circumstances, but I was so flabbergasted by one user's inability to understand anything that I wanted to tell them, "I'm sorry. You're unemployable."

Time for a remote session.