Current Events > I need to remember to stop speaking in technical terms to non-technical people

(+) Yeah! (+)

When I fix something at work and they ask me what the problem was, I sometimes tell them exactly what the problem was down to the technical terms instead of translating it into layman's terms. The blank stare I get makes me realize my mistake.
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That's kinda funny. I always like it when someone explains something in technical terms so I can look them up later.
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itachi15243 posted...

That's kinda funny. I always like it when someone explains something in technical terms so I can look them up later.

Yeah, I'm the same way, but... With most people it just goes over their heads and they don't really bother with trying to understand the acronyms/terms.
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With most people, you are just solving their problem. They dont care what you did only that its no longer their problem.
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C7D posted...

With most people, you are just solving their problem. They dont care what you did only that its no longer their problem.

The people I'm talking about are asking what the problem was after the fact, though
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it sounds like youareverysmart
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It's kinda weird that sometimes when I need to interact with people inside my own department I'll tell them something is causing an exception, and they have no idea what I'm talking about.

I'd really have expected some sort of programming background for most of these guys' jobs but apparently they have nothing whatsoever.

I honestly don't know how you can manage a network without it tbh. I mean, not if you anticipate any problems beyond "ha, the thing was unplugged" but they usually do a good job of it so
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I don't have any programming knowledge whatsoever, unless the actual configuration of the network equipment is considered programming. I guess it could be considered that...
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CableZL posted...

C7D posted...

With most people, you are just solving their problem. They dont care what you did only that its no longer their problem.

The people I'm talking about are asking what the problem was after the fact, though

Oh I see. I know those types of people. Good luck. Its like the people who listen to complicated operetta without understanding what makes it special.
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i do this too but with beer

sometimes i bartend for extra cash and when people ask me about the beer i go into the hop profile, original gravity, secondary fermentation, etc etc and lose people fast
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GregShmedley posted...

You really like stroking your own ego, huh?

What? If anything, this topic is about how bad I am at relating technical issues to non technical people sometimes. It's something I need to improve at.
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Server made a boom boom.
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GregShmedley posted...

That's one way to look at it, sure. But anytime I see topic about your job, it's bragging about how you did someone else's job or how you've tackled X project but yourself or how you made some IT rep look stupid.

Maybe you don't see it or don't intend to do it. But your topics reek of not-so-subtle bragging.

Other topics I've made are definitely of the bragging sort. I don't really have a problem doing that, nor do I try to hide it when I'm doing it. A recent example being AT&T trying to avoid investigating their own network as the cause of an outage, and I was able to use my networking knowledge to show him that his own excuses didn't make sense.

However, this topic is me saying I need to get better at explaining technical problems to non-technical people. It's not a bad thing to be non-technical, and most jobs don't require much technical knowledge at all outside of being able to use a computer. In the IT world, not being able to do that well is considered a bad thing.
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This is an especially huge problem in my line of work.
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CableZL posted...

GregShmedley posted...

You really like stroking your own ego, huh?

What? If anything, this topic is about how bad I am at relating technical issues to non technical people sometimes. It's something I need to improve at.

I'm too smart to relate to the common man.
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Steve Nick posted...

I'm too smart to relate to the common man.

Eh, I don't really consider myself smarter than other people. I've just spent a ton of time studying networking in the past 5 years or so, so I'm very knowledgeable in that area. I think other people would be better at networking than I am if they did what I did.
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