It occurred to me today that some people think I’m a magician.

I’ve run into it before with my kids. I’ve run into it before with my coworkers and with my students. They think I’m a magician.

And I’m sure that I’m not the only one. There are probably different types of workers, all over the economy, that are viewed as magicians because people don’t understand what’s involved in their work and so, the fact that these people are able to do their jobs must mean their magical in some way.

For me, it comes with the territory of being a computer technician. Because people don’t understand how computers work, how to fix them, how to troubleshoot the issues that you have when you are working on one, they think that anyone who is capable of fixing them and making them work is somehow special.

I assure you, I am not special.

I have a friend in the town where I live who’s the head auto mechanic at one of the most popular auto shops in town –> he says the same thing. When a customer doesn’t understand that there is an intricacy to the way that an automobile functions, they are likely to view those people who fix cars as endowed with some sort of special powers.

There are multiple problems that this creates, not the least of which is a communication gap.

When someone asks me to troubleshoot a computer problem that they are having, the least they can do, to help me in helping them, is to offer as much detailed information as possible. But, this often doesn’t happen, especially when the person with the problem doesn’t know much at all about computers. When I am dealing with users who fall significantly short of being knowledgeable, the request for assistance usually ends up sounding like, “It doesn’t work; please fix it.”

I can’t do anything with, “It doesn’t work; please fix it.”

Imagine taking your car to the mechanic and saying, “It’s broke; please fix it.”

Or going to your doctor and saying, “I’m in pain; please fix it.”

My favorite user is the one who offers as much pertinent information as possible to try to help me troubleshoot the problem. For a computer technician, the kind of information that is useful to me is information like, “When did the problem first start happening?” and “Does the problem happen all the time, or only part of the time?” and “What are you doing on the computer when the problem occurs?” and “What steps have you tried to fix the problem yourself?” and…

You get the idea. The more information I get, the better. I can’t do anything with, “It doesn’t work; please fix it.”

In the event that I get a “It doesn’t work; please fix it.” kind of a request, the problem usually ends up going in one of a couple of different directions.

I will sometimes just ignore the request, in the hopes that the problem goes away or the person realizes their own issue and solves it themselves.

Or, I can pull information out of them, which is sometimes like pulling an infected tooth out of the mouth of an alligator –> not pleasant and to be avoided when possible. I ask questions, either one at a time or a series of simple ones all at once, and the user either gets frustrated with having to answer so many questions or the exchange of information takes so long that it gets me frustrated.

I guess when it comes down to it, the issue is an issue of time. I don’t necessarily enjoy having to spend a large amount of time getting the details that I need out of the user. In my rush to do a thousand different things in a day, I don’t have time for “It doesn’t work; please fix it.”

And now, I can feel this post coming full circle. I feel like I am coming face-to-face with this truth: I need to exercise more patience with those people who know the least about computers because they are the ones most likely to give me a “It doesn’t work; please fix it.” kind of a request. It doesn’t require a lot of patience when I am working with someone who is 1) somewhat knowledgeable, and 2) significantly forthcoming, because I know that dealing with these types of users isn’t going to be so bad. We will put our heads together and we will find the solution to the problem.

The patience becomes of paramount importance when I’m dealing with less skilled users because the distance between their knowledge and my knowledge is the farthest.

Additionally, in my drive to DO! DO! DO! DO! and ACCOMPLISH! ACCOMPLISH! ACCOMPLISH!, I feel that I am under pressure to get things quickly done. I don’t mind that pressure, most of the time, because –to be completely honest– that pressure gives me an excuse to avoid having to engage people in meaningful conversations centered around their needs as computer users.

Come to think of it, I am starting to wonder if I treat everyone this way?!?!

I don’t have time to talk, I’ve got to do X and Y and Z and we should catch up sometime and I’d love to come over but Timmy has soccer practice and Betty has an ortho appointment.

Maybe the busy-ness of our lives is always at war with our attempts to establish real connections with people. For me, the drive to accomplish secretly serves my introverted tendencies so I don’t have to connect with people because I’m “too busy”.

Do you have time to talk? Do you have time to invest in the connection between you and the people around you? If I fix one thousand computer problems, and connect with zero of the computer users around me, what have I accomplished, really?

And, I swear, I’m not a magician.