

10 things your IT guy wants you to know. - edw519
http://www.javameblog.com/2007/08/10-things-your-it-guy-wants-you-to-know.html

======
jwilliams
I've seen this around before - but basically this article is a good example of
how _not_ to communicate to users... The tone is wrong, it's condescending and
it's elitist...

If you take that blog entry, and instead of being the IT guy - imagine this is
a Doctor... You'd be appalled if this was "10 things your Medical guy wants
you to know".

~~~
joestrickler
It's frustrated comedy. I'm sure doctors have a "10 things we want our
patients to know" inside joke about us, too.

~~~
silentbicycle
But they probably do a better job of saving it for when they're talking with
other doctors, rather than posting it on the internet where _everyone_ can see
it.

Also: Spending most of your time complaining about how stupid users are, etc.,
makes it a lot harder to empathize with them and not sound like a standoffish
IT guy. (Most people are probably not as good at compartmentalizing as they
believe.)

If memory serves, _Time Management for System Administrators_
(<http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596007836/>) has a good chapter about how to
be helpful and reasonably polite with non-technical people when you're being
constantly interrupted and the server closet is on fire (with an emphasis on
little things that _show_ you're actually trying to fix things and not just
blowing people off, since many people won't necessarily recognize e.g.
scowling at firewall logs as working on their problem).

"Frustration comedy" is a good term, by the way.

~~~
jumper
Quality of the article aside...."But they probably do a better job of saving
it for when they're talking with other doctors, rather than posting it on the
internet where everyone can see it." Huh. Thing is, they didn't put it up
where "everyone" could see it. Not even YCNews can do that. They put it up
where "anyone" that found it could see it. Which is kinda part of the idea of
an internet, isn't it? Otherwise how would they share it with other "techies"?
(Or doctors or whoever) Well, some subsets of everyone won't find my post
worthwhile so... I shouldn't allow it to exist? Seems like that would rule out
all content ever, more or less.

Of course, beyond that, I suspect we need to have more inter-discipline
discussion where techies and doctors can come to understand one anothers
gripes in the search for a "better way"... but I don't know how well that
could ever really work given human nature.

~~~
silentbicycle
> They put it up where "anyone" that found it could see it. Which is kinda
> part of the idea of an internet, isn't it? Otherwise how would they share it
> with other "techies"?

Agreed. "Anyone", rather than "everyone". (I tried different phrasings about
how, unlike doctors, "techies" are likely to communicate semi-publicly on the
internet, but I stumbled with words and decided the other aspect was a more
important point to make.)

And about inter-discipline discussion, absolutely. It's often difficult, but
very necessary.

------
lethain
By the author's admission, this was apparently reposted without permission. As
he doesn't mention any license permitting his posting, I get the uncomfortable
vibe of content theft.

------
joestrickler
Now why won't my boss let me put this on the support page? :)

