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Strike up a conversation with anyone, casually mention you work with computers and they will tell you every problem they have from their horrible cellphone rece
by thomk 9y ago
Strike up a conversation with anyone, casually mention you work with computers and they will tell you every problem they have from their horrible cellphone reception to the idiot IT guy at work to issues with Excel. Whatever the current 'computer' problem is, your'e about to hear it.
That's step 1. Step 2 is give them some solid advice in the form of a few things to try. Say "Well here's what I would do" and tell them what you'd do. If they keep asking questions, tell them something along the lines of "I did something like that for another guy and charged him $X/hour, you want me to stop by?"
Mentioning an hourly rate lets them know that even though this might be a hobby for them, its not a hobby for you. It also weeds out the tire kickers.
- personjerry 9y agoNot if you live in the bay area
- EGreg 9y agoWhy not? Can you elaborate
- personjerry 9y agoIn the Bay area everyone is assumed to be in tech unless otherwise noted, so this sort of uninformed response to "I'm a computer guy" is generally not seen
- EGreg 9y agoI am in SF right now for a couple days and the vast majority of people I run across are NOT in tech. Where are the tech people? Where can I run into potential investors in SF? When people say Bay Area I think they really mean Palo Alto!
- personjerry 9y agoInteresting. In my experience, at any given function, at bars, in parks, or anywhere really in the bay area, talking to anyone has around 50% chance to be someone working at some sort of tech company. Not necessarily an engineer, but certainly close enough to probably know computers to a reasonable level.
- thomk 9y agoYou're right. I would like to amend my comment to exclude the .004% of the Earths surface that is the Bay Area.
- personjerry 9y agoNot sure if you're making a jab at the fact that the Bay Area is relatively small compared to most of the world, but I thought it was a relevant comment because HN is disproportionately located in Bay Area.
- Kostic 9y agoIs it really? Do we have data for geographic distribution of HN users?
- davidbanham 9y agoA little old, but this is the best I could find. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3298905 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3298905 That poll indicates that the significant majority of HN readers reside outside the Bay Area of San Francisco in the US.
- personjerry 9y agoYes, but that's definitely disproportional to the % of population of the Bay Area relative to the world