[fr_freak]

I worked in IT for ten years or so, and I was always disgusted at the number of co-workers who were incapable of figuring out the hard stuff on their own. In the one mega-corporation that I worked for, we literally had to write out explicit step-by-step scripts for what I would consider basic procedures (software installs, OS builds, etc.). Even then, we would have some people who complained in meetings that the scripts weren't complete enough, because there was something like a stage where a message box came up saying "Continue - yes or no?" and the script morons wouldn't even know how to answer the question because it wasn't in the script. I estimated the ratio of people who actually knew what they were doing to the script kiddies to be 1:4.

I have since developed an observation/theory that the level of technology is quickly outstripping the ability of most people to comprehend it and service it properly, especially in this age of dumbed-down public schooling and ideology-driven curriculum at the universities, and that includes ALL areas - computer, automotive, medical, etc. If we don't collapse from economic forces, I think we'll eventually collapse from lack of knowledge and intelligence to be able to keep our own machines running.

[wally_bert]

I 100% agree about technology just getting so overwhelming and diverse and people being able to keep up with it. Running into “technical” people who couldn’t think or reason is happening to me more and more.

One of my mass deployments for a gov’t agency sometime back had a fairly simple script to follow. Do a few and there wasn’t much to think about after.

The standard barring network or other anamolies was 14 units per day. That is old backup/breakdown of old with backup made and restored to new and all hardware fully assembled and some admin.

I usually made goal and one other guy was usually there or close. One other fellow seemed permanently baffled. If he had 4 done correctly in a day, it was something.

Half of the ones he did would require the old one to be pulled from the truck and backed up again. I don’t know why. Their backup routine consisted of two icons. One for the old and one for the new.

If there was any kind of problem, the policy was to have an agency IT person to manually move or handle the problem. They were quite strict on that.

[dhs12345]

Very well said!

Young kids seem to have a knack for it though. Get em a computer early and let them go and include protections because the Internet can be a cold nasty place.