Could just also have been outright fear. Waaay too many people did this for computers in the 90’s and 00’s They hit something they don’t understand and they just freeze.

I had this nurse out of state. She had worked her entire life on paper. Xeroxed forms, filled them out, filed them. She was only in her 30’s. We were a big healthcare company, and she started working for us. We had a strong need to have things digitized. She had just convinced her coworker to key in all her forms after she took care of them, but the situation was untenable. Her boss called me, we need her to have her own computer so she can learn to use it. AOK, I configured and mailed one right away.

Boss calls me back, a week later. so and so can’t get on. OH OK!, what’s the error? You’ll need to talk to her. That’s fine can you put her on? Ohh um she just left. K, can you have her call me when she gets back and we’ll sort it out right away.

A day goes by, Two, Boss calls me, So and So still can’t get on. She never called me, yeah let me put her on the line.

[muffled argument]

[long silence]

soandso: meekest voice hello

me: HI! let’s get you on your laptop, this should only take a second.

soandso: mumbles

me: i missed that, what was that?

[long silence]

me: I hear you can’t get on your laptop, let’s fix that. Did your password just not work? where did you get stuck?

[long silence]

soandso: mumbles

me: I can’t hear you, if you speak up a touch, we’ll get you going

[long silence]

soandso: almost a whisper I don’t know what to do

Me: quiet and reserved, shooting for soothing ok, that’s not a problem, we’ll go through step by step until it works, do you have the laptop in front of you?

soandso: a whisper yes

Me: is it open?

soandso: a whisper no

Me: ok, lets open it up, do you see a button on the front, you’ll need to press that and pull up on the lid

[long silence]

soandso: light sobbing it’s still in the box

me: [internally: JESUS] ok, no proble, let’s get that box open

90 minutes, in an hour and half, we got the box open, got the laptop out, opened it up, too a 5 minute break to sob and then re-collect herself. found the power button (this took 10 minutes alone) it was on the upper right of the keyboard, she made me walk her up from control, to shift to enter and so on. It came on, it was already setup for their wifi, all she had to do was enter the username and password which i had emailed to her boss and asked her to write it on a sticky.

She finally was on the desktop

soandso: morose now what

me: We’re done, you’ll need to work with your boss now to find out how to do your actual work on it, but you should be able to get in now.

She lasted another week before they fired her.

She was an RN, she knew medical coding, and she drove, she was just terrified of learning new shit

yeah, i don’t ever see it hallucinate, but I also don’t ask it how the fuck it’s feeling

A car in this video went 107 meters in 4 seconds, how fast was it going in mph, then i napkin math to make sure it’s sane.

What are the best options for meal planning software where my family can vote on what’s for dinner and give me a grocery list and menu plan?

This goes really well with the post a few lines up “TIL: 54% of American Adults Read Below 6th Grade-Levels”

She was probably very relatable to them.

My coworker moved to Sweden for three years, and his kids had a much less favorable experience.

Language classes in school are horrible. You’re going for an hour a day for 180 days, with significant gaps every few months, and moving at the rate of the slowest learners in the class.

500 hours of constant, immersive study would likely get you most of the way there, which is not the same as being immersed for 500 hours without study :)

I thought I was doing well with Duolingo once, then realized, 40 hours in, that I had almost no concept of formal/informal, and barely had any verb conjugation or grammar.