by NetPigeon
1. We admitted we were powerless over users, operating systems, the Internet, modems, dial-up connections, ISDN, ADSL, cable-modems, Apple-Talk, WebTV and the telcos - that technical support is, by its very nature, unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that end-user training could restore sanity to our jobs.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of the BOFH.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves, our desk, our office, our hard drive, our subscribed newsgroups and mailing lists, and, through Deja-News, our usenet postings for the past two years.
5. Admitted to the BOFH, to ourselves, and to another Bob being the exact nature of the gaps in our technical knowledge.
6. Were entirely ready to attend training and help the BOFH remove all these deficiencies.
7. Humbly asked the BOFH to remove our home phone numbers from the white pages.
8. Made a list of all users we never called back, and became willing to take whatever time necessary to ensure every computer problem they have is solved.
9. Made house visits wherever possible, except when to do so would result in a severe LARTing, injuring the user or the child that jammed the PBJ in the CD-ROM drive.
10. Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong, promptly sought additional training.
11. Sought through e-mail and usenet to improve our conscious contact with the BOFH, seeking only for knowledge of The Operator's will for us and all the caffeine, sugar and CPU power to carry that out.
12. Having had a technical awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other Bobs, and to practise these principles during every support incident.
BOFH, grant me the serenity to support the users I can,
To LART the users I can't,
And the technical savvy to know the difference.