Other people are not me
Today, I'm really struggling not to judge people by the standards I set for myself. It sounds like I'm being petty and conceited, but let me explain.
I had a customer call, and for about an hour, I tried to walk them through installing software on their computer. It was very frustrating. It wasn't a particularly difficult install. It took 15 minutes just to explain what I meant by "web browser" when I said, "Open your web browser and go to [redacted] website".
My gut reaction to this interaction was, "this person is a moron". I don't want to go on a tangent on why I should be able to say what I want, even if it's rude or discriminatory, as long as it's true, so I won't comment on my use of the word "moron". All that said, while going through the exhausting exercise of patience set before me, I started thinking about this person and wondering why they were so bad at technology. I mean, this person was an accountant, in his 80s, sure, but I have seen him do incredible math in his head faster than I can do it on a calculator. Apparently the computer is his intellectual nemesis, trying to make him look bad.
I've had all sorts of experiences worse than this one. I've gone to a customer site to find the reason a computer wouldn't turn on is the power bar the computer was plugged into, was plugged into itself for power. I've driven 4 hours to a customer site because the network was down, but the server was turned on, only to find that the 3 people I had verify the server was on didn't actually verify the server was on, and all I had to do was turn the server on and everything was fixed.
The thing I've learned about all of this is not only does everyone make mistakes, but all of us are different. These are extreme examples, but I will occasionally find myself upset that a customer doesn't understand how a SQL database works, or how to build their own computer, which under a different context is something that people have to learn before they understand. I sometimes forget that to get where I was now, I've got almost 20 years experience, so of course these other people aren't going to know it as well as I do.
I guess what I'm trying to say is even deeper than my examples. Each person is unique and goes through different experiences. Who am I to judge someone else for a lack of knowledge in a field they haven't spend more than half their life in. I can't judge the 80 something year old accountant, because I would bet he knows more about accounting, and can do math faster, than I know about computers, and fix them.