For the Love of Tech

This week has been fairly wild at work. It's only Wednesday and the phones have pulled a three day Monday attack. Most of the stuff is pretty basic nothing to scary - well not any scarier than our users here.

I have found we have roughly three groups of people here on campus. The total Techno-freak "just show me the tech and get out of my way", the Mid-user "I love it and can wander certain paths but have no clue on how to use anything else with it, let me continually visit the oracle they will answer all my questions" and the final group of Techno-phobic "please keep the binary pixies away - they scare me".

We never hear from the Techno-freak unless something earth shattering has happened and after exhausting ALL other avenues of information they finally break down and give us a call expecting something awe inspiring to fix the issue. (sometimes we can do this but miracles are rare and usually take some effort to pull off)

The mid-user is our number one frequent flyer. If we could give out miles we'd have a few folks ready to travel first class on the vacation of their dreams. Sadly these are the folks I think we have wronged greatly by allowing the "oracle syndrome" to occur. So even the littlest thing will spark a desire to call and ask the most obvious question, thus making us the sol source and repository for all their technical knowledge.

Techno-phobics are some of the more interesting people. Filled with two subcategories one that abhors technology in general the other just doesn't have time to bother with it, so they find someone else to handle any technical matters they experience. Due to their desire to avoid technology we only hear from these folks when once or twice a year when they go in to check something and need their password reset, and aid in accomplishing whatever it is they have procrastinated 'til it is nearly everlastingly too late. Some of these folks after experiencing a little success join the ranks of the mid-user and quickly succumb to the "oracle syndrome".

The challenge is keeping enough top end knowledge handy to help when needed for the Techno-freaks when all your braincells are being burned by Mid-user's and Techno-phobics. It's scary some days as I can walk a person through the secondary desktop login on any computer on campus with my eyes close and usually will recognize this problem within seconds of hearing their voice as they ramble through the issue trying to explain the situation.

Getting the right information is tricky too - it has become an art of theoretical imagery and analogy when talking to some of our users. Which is why I'm voting for the best line today I heard from one of our Technicians on the phone while talking to a Mid-user trying to find out why they can't connect their tablet to the wireless network:

"Is that a statement or a choice?"