Tuesday, December 11, 2012

How To Ask For Help From Techies...

...and nearly any other group of experts on a particularly involved topic.

NOTE: I tried to do a TL;DR version, but with the commentary, it was almost as long as the original article. I STRONGLY suggest you read the entire article linked.
You see, as a computer technician, I get a LOT of questions about computers and how to fix them. Frequently, it's a quick "how do I..." question, asked in passing at work or by friends while I'm out and about. Generally speaking, I'm okay with quick "how do I..." questions, as long as it doesn't take more than a couple of minutes to answer.
But there are always (and frequently so) the users who constantly barrage technicians like myself with issues they have on their personal or work PCs. Unfortunately a LARGE MAJORITY of these issues are the type that just irritate the hell out of me and other technicians.
So today, I bring to you a link for downtime reading. It is long and a bit brash. It's written by a "hacker". No, not one of those malicious little punks who write viruses and break into your systems (those are more accurately called "crackers"). No, he's a hacker, meaning a high-level expert in a variety of systems and computers in general.
So in this article, now about two years old in its latest iteration, he talks to end users about how to ask smart questions to techies. How to elicit better responses (hint: 'better' responses are not always what you'd think), and how to make it more likely to get a response AT ALL.
So, without further ado, the link is here (beware, this is a long, but very useful read):
http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
(Note: reposted here in accordance with author's policy)
I urge everybody to read that - it shows how to make it more likely to get answers from very technical people on websites, and to find your answers for FREE! But bear in mind that it's not all easy work. In fact, it puts a lot of the responsibility on you, the end user. In short, it shows user and technicians alike how to LEARN.
I very much agree with the author's point of view. It is, by and large, how I learned so much about computers. I didn't keep asking question after question after question. No, I did my own research and then asked when I honestly couldn't find the answer. I still hold to that, and even teach my sysadmins a few things that they don't know (because hey - nobody knows EVERYTHING about computers).
Keep in mind that the suggestions in the above article are not just about asking for free help; it’s also a valuable set of lessons for dealing with your company’s IT support, as well. While some of the items don’t translate to in-house IT, a lot of it does (especially the part about Googling for your answers).
It’s not about lazy IT technicians not wanting to do work; it’s about technicians who want you to learn. We want you to learn how to resolve your issues; that way, when you run across the problems you can’t resolve, we’re presented with the challenges that much US learn. That’s why there’s a joke that the #1 tool for IT techs and sysadmins is Google. Here’s a hint: that’s not a joke – it’s the actual truth. In fact, that’s very frequently how many of us learned enough to become professional techs.

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