3 ms·

My father is a doctor. I assure you, you are overestimating the ability of (some) people to report specific symptoms.

tambourine_man 10y ago
It may very well be that I'm biased since it's my field. But what looks like the exception in other areas seems to be the rule in IT.
- csours 10y ago
  I'm sure there's a name for this phenomenon, but every field is like this. It looks easy and clear-cut to you, because you know what is going on. You look at an HTTPS connection issue, and you can soon discern that the crypto-suites do not match, so the connection cannot be negotiated. You go to a mechanic (assuming you are not knowledgeable about cars), and you can at best partially describe a symptom and when it occurs and your best guess as to why it might occur. That is better than a non-technical person, its true, but a mechanic may be able to speak to you at the same level about computer problems. As a counterpoint, look around your office at all the people who would not be able to help the mechanic diagnose a problem - they may have domain specific knowledge, but not a troubleshooting mindset.
  - tambourine_man 10y ago
    I think you're onto something regarding the troubleshooting mindset. I know very little of cars, but I used to arrive at the mechanic with a clear problem: overheating, noise while turning the wheel, flashing light on the dashboard, etc. No need to know the solution, just articulate the problem. I fell like computers occupy almost the realm of magic in most people's mind. When it works, it's great, when it doesn't, why bother, it's beyond comprehension.
- Noughmad 10y ago
  I don't know, I'm sure mechanics deal with a lot of "my car has a strange sound". Or people not admiting that there's anything wrong with it. It's probably more that there aren't many things except computers and cars which are both ubiquitous and breakable.
  - boondaburrah 10y ago
    Not enough people grew up listening to Car Talk on NPR.

It may very well be that I'm biased since it's my field. But what looks like the exception in other areas seems to be the rule in IT.

csours 10y ago
I'm sure there's a name for this phenomenon, but every field is like this. It looks easy and clear-cut to you, because you know what is going on. You look at an HTTPS connection issue, and you can soon discern that the crypto-suites do not match, so the connection cannot be negotiated. You go to a mechanic (assuming you are not knowledgeable about cars), and you can at best partially describe a symptom and when it occurs and your best guess as to why it might occur. That is better than a non-technical person, its true, but a mechanic may be able to speak to you at the same level about computer problems. As a counterpoint, look around your office at all the people who would not be able to help the mechanic diagnose a problem - they may have domain specific knowledge, but not a troubleshooting mindset.
- tambourine_man 10y ago
  I think you're onto something regarding the troubleshooting mindset. I know very little of cars, but I used to arrive at the mechanic with a clear problem: overheating, noise while turning the wheel, flashing light on the dashboard, etc. No need to know the solution, just articulate the problem. I fell like computers occupy almost the realm of magic in most people's mind. When it works, it's great, when it doesn't, why bother, it's beyond comprehension.
Noughmad 10y ago
I don't know, I'm sure mechanics deal with a lot of "my car has a strange sound". Or people not admiting that there's anything wrong with it. It's probably more that there aren't many things except computers and cars which are both ubiquitous and breakable.
- boondaburrah 10y ago
  Not enough people grew up listening to Car Talk on NPR.