This is my world

[featherynscale]

My relationship to computers, as summed up in a conversation between me and kittenpants last night:

I don't actually know anything about how computers work. I'm not educated in the field, I don't know all of the terminology, or have any standardized background in the things at all. I do, however, have a kind of Cargo Cult proficiency with them -- I repeat rituals I have witnessed being successful in similar situations, I pray to them and bargain with them and curse them, and kludge together unlikely fixes based on my limited and probably skewed understanding of principle. I am a sort of computer witch doctor. This behavior is, oddly enough, successful about 75-80% of the time, which is better than you can get from most tech support, so I call it good.

Comments

[ysabel.livejournal.com]

I'll repeat what's already been said. Most tech support folks do the same thing.

Many programmers do it too, with a slightly different set of rituals. I'm constantly amazed at how many people can manage to make a living at programming without actually understanding anything about how to program.