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Originally Posted: February 18th, 2007

I just wanted to add that a lot of people tend to see me as someone to go to for computer information. This has to be one of the things that I like least about people. I cannot stand it when people repeatedly ask things like this from me. When people talk to me, this tends to be one of the things they are after. Unless they are my best friends, people may only talk to me if they need something fixed with their computer.

I will save them the trouble…

USE GOOGLE.

I have never solved a problem on anyone’s computer without first consulting the wonder that is Google. Too often do I find that people don’t even do the basic research into their problem before asking me. The reason behind this is that I do the exact same thing, I look on Google and follow whatever solutions I may find.

If you have a problem, chances are that someone else has had that problem, and that they’ve posted about it on a discussion forum… And that someone else has solved it. I just read these solutions and apply to the particular case.

Ranting aside, I don’t mind at all doing this for my friends. But when people that don’t talk to me on a regular basis come and ask me for this crap… boy does that make me frustrated. I mean, I’m a nice guy so I will do it anyways, but it doesn’t mean I’ll be happy about it.

So next time, yea, ask for advice if you’d like. But please do a little research on your own first. I love helping my friends with whatever issues they might have, and I hate that the only ones they ever come to me for are computer related ones. Do people think that I can offer no insight into anything else? That I am purely a computer nerd who knows nothing else? This is why I dislike helping some people in the first place, because I get a reputation for it.

This summer I will be doing IT Consulting. Not that I don’t like doing that, but I’m really not that good at IT. I’m good at problem-solving, yes, but that applies to everything. I can do IT stuff because I can see the problem and find the accurate solution, through Google. With other things I can actually use my own intuitions which is what I prefer far far more, and what I feel is a better reflection of my true self.

Dammit… I just keep ranting about things.. But another thing I wanted to get out is that too often of late do I notice that people don’t have an open mind. Granted, I took a lot of philosophy and consider myself to be very open to the vast majority of things, but people can’t seem to have an objective conversation anymore. They always tend to get emotionally vested. I would LOVE to be able to have a conversation with someone about geopolitical or ethical or societal issues and not have them get pissed off by the end and have me wondering why. I shouldn’t be afraid of having discussions with people for fear of having them get upset or angry. It just doesn’t make any sense. This is University, this is a place of learning and discussion. So please, if you have a discussion about something academic, then please try to stay objective and make the dichotomy between the speaker and the point or issue.

Thanks .