Those Who Don't Get It (the other "it")...

Geeks are a separate specie, self-isolating units generally incapable of real interface with Norms. I'm fortunate enough to be a Hybrid, part of both worlds, belonging wholly to neither.

This morning I overheard a bit of conversation between our top two IT guys, one the head of Programming, the other head of Legacy systems. As I stepped past them to grab a drink of water, the Legacy guy said to the Programming guy "I see it all the time; people are actually unwilling to do things like learn simple programming, or even install new hardware into their PC! It's so easy, it just goes to show you how little people are capable of comprehending!"

"Actually," I mused, sticking my nose into the conversation, "That's normal for people. It's not really that most of them can't or won't comprehend, it's that they are afraid of new stuff, mostly afraid that they will break expensive things which they don't know how to fix, so they don't even risk it."

"I know," Mr. Legacy replied, "But it's like they don't understand, they don't get it!"

"Don't get what?" I asked. "Give me an example."

"They refuse to stick new hardware into a simple PC! Stuff like that! It's not that hard if you know what you're doing..."

"But they don't know what they're doing; that's the whole point."

"But they should. How hard can it be in the days of Plug-n-Play?"

"Look," I tried to explain, drawing an analogy. "Delivering a calf with birthing complications really isn't all that difficult mentally, it only requires a few simple facts and some common sense, some knack for observation. Beyond that it's merely time-consuming, possibly messy."

"That's not the same thing," he said.

"People, especially people who know very little at all about a computer, are afraid they'll mess something up, something expensive, something they won't know how to fix, something they'll be embarrassed about -- that's why they don't do it."

"If they don't know how to do a simple Plug-n-Play they should be embarrassed!"

I tried once more: "Look, years ago I messed up my first computer for a while because I didn't know RAM had to be installed in pairs, and --"

"It doesn't!" he interrupted vehemently, actual dismay in his voice and body language.

"It doesn't anymore. Back when Pentium was a new thing, it still did. Anyway, I screwed up my BIOS when I tried booting with the new, single RAM chip installed, along with a whole bunch of other hardware I installed all at once. I didn't know what to do, and I was afraid I had completely ruined my PC because I didn't know any better. Two thousand dollars down the drain, you know?"

"You didn't ruin your BIOS; you really can't," he admonished.

"I know that now, but that's not the point. The point is I thought I had ruined it, and I had to get someone else to come fix it for me. I was afraid to install things without a watchful eye after that. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"The BIOS is actually a chip. You couldn't ruin that unless you scratched it or something. You didn't ruin your BIOS."

"I know that, I only messed it up. That's not the point."

"Yes, it is! You couldn't mess it up, you only erased some of the data configuration! How do you not get that?!?"

"This isn't about me and an incident from 1994, this is about why people fear their computers, fear the unknown..."

"The BIOS is a small chip located on the --"

"Why are you telling me about the BIOS? I don't CARE about the BIOS. The BIOS is not the point!"

"It's for future reference, in case you do this again! Now, the BIOS is --"

"Sweet Jesus, you are an absolute geek. Just stop!

"But... you won't be able to fix your BIOS now..."


Seriously, reproduction with some of these people would be interspecies breeding, I am utterly certain!

(Now, that's the "other it" and I understand fully why many of them don't get that...)