The growth of hatred or those known as lusers goes through many stages as you tread the path of bob
First, excitement
- To be able to work with computers all day, and help people using them.
Amazement
- You are first amazed at how anyone could be so silly. (Obviously when the manual said
'copy' the disk, it meant to use the computer, not a copying machine!)
That is, if they go so far as to read the manual...
Pity
- This is a nice phase. You aren't shocked by them anymore. You just want to help. "You
opened up the little door on the disk and used a ball- point pen to write 'Thesis Master' on the
shiny black stuff? No I don't think I can do anything now. Did you have a backup? [Yeah, right!]"
Apathy
- Helping has gotten boring, since you've been asked the same question three thousand
times. "I've put 50 Inits on my Macintosh, many of which do the same thing, and now it doesn't
boot!" or "I couldn't figure out how t remove the floppy disk, so I used a screwdriver and pried
it out. That was OK, but now when I put the disk back in it makes this crunching noise that
wasn't there before." So now you become a little snippy.
Anger - that people won't understand that "I inserted the cd" isn't quite the same as "I tried to open the directory", and get angry when I try to tell them that I need a more specific explanation.
Hatred - Now they have become truly annoying. Why can't they understand you getting angry when they say things like "My machine is broken, fix it." When all you have to do is change the brightness on the monitor, at which point they say, "I was wondering what that dial did, when I fiddled with it my machine broke." Another classic is, "Look I'm 300 miles away on my first vacation in ten years, could you tell me a little MORE about the problem?" and they say, "I turn on the machine... And it's broke." or "I did everything you told me to. I came in, sat down, typed in my name and nothing happened. Did you push the big power switch on the front? Ummmm... No."
Not to mention those who almost cry on the phone, because "I've tried to reach you for so long..." And the ones who have been "IT contacts" for their employers for 10 years, but still don't know how to make a new icon in windows, and do not know how to make a new directory.
Loathing - This is an insanely advanced state. Hopefully by the time you get here you can advance into management, or get your own island in the Bahamas. This brings us to the final stage.
Fear - Where you see that all of these people who have no understanding of any of the workings of machines are making decisions about them. Saying crazy things like, "Connecting the astronomy and gymnastics databases will create a strong user base and will increase technology exchange, information availability, productivity, re-use and access." Or the classic, "Let's talk about getting a partial T1, the campus is a little tied up going through my 1200 baud modem on my desk." to which the committee says, "Oh no, we'll wait on the VaporNet 3000, which enhances productivity by putting crystals on the Ethernet card that go direct to your Chakras! Now, who made that suggestion about re-using those TRS-80's?"
And thus it is that hatred grows within those who would be Bob