8 ms·

I've found that pretending to know someone's profession, or one related to it, is generally a very bad approach. It's easily seen through, at which point you're

I've found that pretending to know someone's profession, or one related to it, is generally a very bad approach. It's easily seen through, at which point you're worse off than before. Instead, what I do with members of other professions is try to impress on them that I do not know their business but respect its complexity and our roles within the scenario. Whether it's a doctor or a plumber or even a computer technician (a field which I probably do know better than they do), I explicitly steer away from diagnoses even when I have a pretty clear idea what the problem is. Instead I describe as clearly as possible symptoms, timing/frequency, possibly related changes, things I've tried and results I've gotten, etc. This has generally worked much better for me than deceptive or manipulative hacks. Often I get thanks or compliments for having made their job easier, which makes me happy. YMMV

nkrisc 7y ago
This method works wonders for corporate tech support. They're pretty used to the "my monitor won't turn on (it's not plugged in)" type users so when you try to tell them you know what's wrong, they assume you're there former type and you have no idea what you're talking about. Instead I very clearly tell them the specific symptoms and relevant information that they would look up anyway. Recently I had a corporate installed process maxing out my CPU so I went to the help desk to see the techs (the triager at the front desk thought it might be a fan issue and that I didn't know what was wrong). Since I was able to tell them the exact process and other details, they immediately recognized it as a specific issue they had seen before and we skipped the whole diagnosis back and forth. If I had gone in there and said, "the fan is running really high" I'd probably still be there.
- michannne 7y ago
  I do support along with my usual dev work and interface with users daily. I can't count the amount of times I've heard "I'm pretty sure it's because of..." followed by something completely unrelated, along with a stubborn resolve to not try the professional's recommended solution
  - nkrisc 7y ago
    That's exactly what I try to avoid. I try to focus on the facts as they present themselves. Computer is hot, fan is running full speed, process X is hogging 90% of CPU resources, and to not offer what I think the problem is (because I might be wrong or there's some nuance I'm not aware of). I assume the people who manage our tech know its idiosyncracies, but at the same time I don't want them thinking it's because I keep every browser tab I've ever opened running at the same time.
  - bonzini 7y ago
    Well, that goes both ways. My wife is a social media editor and former web editor, so she is not a technician but she knows browsers more than her average colleague. Whenever some internal application has issues, she has to go through the same 10 minutes of explanations that it must be Firefox's fault, every time she calls tech support, after which they agree that it is usually what she suspected the issue to be; or if she had no clue and all she could tell them is "I have tried both Firefox and Chrome" guess what, it's not Firefox vs. Chrome.
  - golergka 7y ago
    Do you find that developers, system administrators and other IT professionals (the typical HN crowd) are just as guilty of this?
  - Aeolun 7y ago
    I think I’m about 50/50 on thinking their solution is absolute bull and being right, and having made a retarded mistake and their solution solving everything.
    - exikyut 7y ago
      This seems like a very scalable sane default presumption, in any case.
  - o-__-o 7y ago
    Or they give you a log snippet and fail to say _what_ log it came from. Context, people!
- egdod 7y ago
  I did similar recently. I emailed the support team with a screenshot of task manager showing what process it was, and I identified (with 30 seconds of googling) what product it was associated with. I like to think that saved everyone an hour of pointless fucking around.
  - CalChris 7y ago
    I send a LOT of screen shots these days. Grab (OS X) to the clipboard, paste in text message or email. The screen shot usually has everything I want to point out while leaving out the unnecessary.
  - bentcorner 7y ago
    If you're ever in this situation again, taking a performance trace is easy to do and potentially helpful for the triaging team. wpr -start GeneralProfile do something, or let process spin wpr -stop foo.etl Include foo.etl with your bug report. Be aware that it will include personal information from your machine (machine config, user paths, process names, etc.).
- 1024core 7y ago
  As always, there's an XKCD for this: https://xkcd.com/806/ https://xkcd.com/806/
  - runjake 7y ago
    We know. This XKCD is why this Twitter thread exists in the first place.
Shorel 7y ago
Even if you actually know the profession, their reaction is not good. Your approach seems more practical.
typhonic 7y ago
About 30 years ago I was being asked by some guy I barely knew to do something over the weekend. I didn't know how to tell him that I would rather just be at home with my family. Eventually and without thinking it through, I just said "It's my weekend with the kids." He instantly became apologetic and said he understood completely. And I instantly felt like a heel for pretending to be someone I'm not. I had accidentally identified with a group that suffers in a way I did not. It worked, but the experience has stuck with me. I don't like myself when I'm too afraid to be truthful and while I don't think I hurt the other guy, it was a close call. One that I try to avoid. edit:spelling
- sneak 7y ago
  It’s not your fault that the listener assumed you were divorced; you implied it (accidentally) but did not state it. You were not untruthful-what you said was literally and exactly correct. The assumptions made by a listener as a result of intentionally limited data are not your responsibility in any way, indeed even if you were able to predict them with any reasonable level of accuracy, which you are not. I have an essay pending on this exact topic.
  - sbarre 7y ago
    Being deceptive might not mean being "untruthful" as you put it, but it's still deception.
  - pavel_lishin 7y ago
    > I have an essay pending on this exact topic. We all look forward to reaching a conclusion you didn't intend us to due to our assumptions.
    - jacobush 7y ago
      I already made the conclusion!
  - sujNansnam 7y ago
    You may feel this way, but the society you live in does not. http://www.glottopedia.org/index.php/Gricean_maxims http://www.glottopedia.org/index.php/Gricean_maxims I find it unlikely that you really abide by this stated disregard of implicit assumptions - it would make communication impossible. The amount of information required to convey even basic facts is encyclopedic if you and your conversational partner don’t make use of assumptions about what the other already knows.
GuB-42 7y ago
Always assume competence is, I think, a good strategy. People are more willing to help if you flatter their ego. And most importantly, sometimes, people really are competent.
- cannonedhamster 7y ago
  I spent three months with my corporate IT on a problem I'd diagnosed in 10 minutes, because in a previous life I was corporate IT and had experience doing exactly what they were doing. After explaining what and why I thought the issue was what I thought it was they told me I couldn't be right and I let them dig at it. After multiple calls to Microsoft, who was equally confused, they finally got to an advanced tech. They called me and told me proudly they'd discovered the issue. It was exactly what I'd said three months earlier. This is not the last time issues like this have come up with my corporate IT. I always assume incomptence unless shown otherwise. I'll be polite but I don't think it's always the right solution.
- asjw 7y ago
  It doesn't take you anywhere if they always answer "you use Linux? It must be that" Assume competence if they show competence If they don't, assume they will be part of the problem, you won't get any help and they will make the situation worse
mike_hock 7y ago
To some extent that was what the suggestions were about, though. Installing an IDE just to have the icon to show for it is a stupid hack that'll stop working once people see through the charade. OTOH, running the test suite and showing the failing tests or, if they pass, explaining very precisely what misbehavior you're seeing and how you reproduced it, is actually helpful. Be helpful to the extent of your competence but honest about its limits. Trying to bullshit when you clearly have no clue makes you annoying to work with, but so does being a noob who doesn't even try to understand what's going on and just wants someone else to do all the work.
driverdan 7y ago
I agree with your general sentiment but having basic knowledge and knowing some terminology can get you farther. It's like going to a foreign country and making an effort to speak their language. Even if you're bad at it and end up having a conversation in your native language they'll respect you for the effort. You wouldn't see a doctor and pretend to also be one but understanding some basic terminology and diagnostic procedure will help.
- threwawasy1228 7y ago
  I kind of take issue with the fact that this works, maybe not in your foreign language example but in general. I shouldn't have to learn the terminology of HVAC services or plumbing services or any service that I have no intention of learning more about to get better service. Every customer regardless of their knowledge of the service they are using should get a competent response without having to learn anything about that profession. That is the whole point of having a professional there working for you afterall.
Nextgrid 7y ago
I agree with this in cases of legitimate, friendly companies that are proud of what they do and want to provide a good service. This breaks down when dealing with monopolies and companies that are too big to fail. Customer service in their case is always monkeys (from my experience) - they aren’t paid enough to care, they don’t know anything about their company’s product/service (because a skilled person wouldn’t put up with the low pay and working conditions) and have very limited power in actually fixing your problem even when they understand it. In that case scaring them into escalating the call might be a better strategy than just running around in circles trying to make a monkey understand what you’re after.
Aeolun 7y ago
> Instead I describe as clearly as possible symptoms, timing/frequency, possibly related changes, things I've tried and results I've gotten, etc. What do you do if after all this, they still keep circling the problem?
- scarejunba 7y ago
  "Could it be X? I read in the Y that sometimes this happens with it" If you want to add authority pick Y = Newspaper. If you think the person will respond better to you placing yourself societally lower, say 'online' and weaken your statement with something like "but who knows how true that is" etc. The objective is to place the thought in their head but keep them believing they're putting the pieces together. You could even try "It's probably not Z, right? Like in that movie". There doesn't have to be a movie, no one will follow up. This part is hard because you really need to read their reactions and make sure you come off not as a kook hypochondriac but as a bumbling layman who just happened upon the right thing. Do it wrong and you'll be patronizing and insta-lose. Do it right and you'll get everything you want. I employ this + being as non-threatening as possible (cheerful, less smart than, less powerful than) + minor groveling ("would you mind doing this anyway, I know you're probably right but it'll make me feel so much better"). I get pretty quick service everywhere, even where other people complain. In general, though, this is last resort. Usually the fastest way to get good service is to rapidly and clearly comply with orders. Just like when you're debugging an issue, you've got a standard process, other professionals do too and letting them prune their search tree is important. You know that lingering feeling you have where you're like "maybe the DNS server is flaky, naaah it couldn't be"? That's what they're avoiding and giving that to them means you get bucketed it into "smooth interaction" which is superior to anything else because in the end, nothing works better than someone wanting to help you.
  - tristor 7y ago
    Maybe I'm just internally resistant to appearing weak in interactions. I find that this never works for me. I always come off as patronizing and condescending, even when that is not my intention in any way. For me, at least, just being somewhat minimally competent and trying to self-service, then making that competence known and clear at the first contact seems to have the highest success rate. I think what method works best really depends on your personality type. I agree that the goal is to ensure that you are making the interaction smooth by get the person you're asking for help what they need. But I also see asking for help as two different modes. 1. I'm asking for help because I am not empowered (access controls, specialty tools) to fix my own issue, but if I had been so empowered I could have resolved it on my own easily. 2. I'm asking for help because I don't know the solution, but I'm competent enough to narrow it to a particular trouble area. In #2, I acknowledge outright, internally and externally, that because I am asking for help I have reached the limit of my competence. My request is inherently respectful, because I'm acknowledging the superior competence of the person(s) I'm asking for help from, but out of respect for their time I do my best to ask a good question and provide all the necessary details to make helping me a low friction event. In the case of #1... often it's better to aggressively establish your own competence to get them to just do what you need done. Unfortunately in the world of large organizations and bureaucracy you will deal with a lot of incompetent people who are put in a position of some tiny fraction of power over you. You need to get them to exercise that power to your benefit, but you also need to not alienate them so they withhold it. People with only a small amount of power can be extraordinarily vindictive, so it's best to approach them with a measure of respect, but also clearly establish the boundaries of the interaction so you can proceed as quickly as possible and be on with your life. I've worked roles in which I was in both situations on the other side of the table, but I had enough self-awareness to realize when I was the monkey in #1 and I did my best to be as efficient as possible and let people get on with it. In situation #2, I understand very deeply the frustration of having someone essentially toss something over the wall and in so doing show their disrespect for your competence and the value of your time. As always, you want to go through life without making other people feel badly, but taking a submissive pathway will not always work for you, especially if that is not in your nature.
nimbius 7y ago
Speaking as an automotive mechanic and a tradesman, nothing sounds more despicable than this half-ass attempt to "game" human interaction to save a few precious seconds in your day. You wouldn't do this with a doctor. You wouldn't do it with a police officer. So why do it with me? Or tech people? Are they somehow less impressive? I mean you are seeking their help. Maybe show some respect. if you're ever at the garage waiting on a repair, just speak English. Yeah I know my questions are going to be a little basic and repetitive sometimes but they're for my understanding. What sounds like a waste of breath for you is actually helping me to formulate a solution and troubleshoot a problem. Work with me, not around me.
- technofiend 7y ago
  >Speaking as an automotive mechanic and a tradesman, nothing sounds more despicable than this half-ass attempt to "game" human interaction to save a few precious seconds in your day. Doctors enjoy a higher reputation for "honesty and ethical standards" [1] and have the specter of medical malpractice if they yield a misdiagnosis, particularly if it's one that harms the patient. There is no equivalent for mechanics and frankly the public on average trusts mechanics far less than doctors. Auto mechanics got 32% in the high/very high trust category vs 67% for doctors in the latest Gallup poll. [1] Anecdotally distrust of mechanics is such an issue I distinctly remember my youngest sister getting approached by car dealers from all over the city after she took auto shop in high school. She was told dealership repair shops needed women because some female customers simply didn't trust what they were being told by male repair shop representatives. Despite this apparent need the pay offered wasn't enough to entice her from just working at the O'Reilly Auto Parts down the street. [1] https://news.gallup.com/poll/1654/honesty-ethics-professions.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/1654/honesty-ethics-professions...
- asjw 7y ago
  I do it with the doctor! We have mandatory visits at work here in Italy and to save time when I go there, instead of following the usual routine, I say immediately: my grandfather suffered from high pressure, my mom has been curing her high pressure her entire life, I also probably have it so if you find high pressure, I know everything about it already. Also my parents worked in healthcare, you can use medical terms, I get those. I also tells them I suffer from a genetic heart condition, not worrying, but existent. It's called anamnesi, it's a necessary process to establish the patient's background and saves a lot of time to the both of us. They don't have to explain to me that I should avoid using salt and all the side effects of a condition I know very well and I don't have to listen to things I already know, since 40 years ago.

nkrisc 7y ago

This method works wonders for corporate tech support. They're pretty used to the "my monitor won't turn on (it's not plugged in)" type users so when you try to tell them you know what's wrong, they assume you're there former type and you have no idea what you're talking about. Instead I very clearly tell them the specific symptoms and relevant information that they would look up anyway. Recently I had a corporate installed process maxing out my CPU so I went to the help desk to see the techs (the triager at the front desk thought it might be a fan issue and that I didn't know what was wrong). Since I was able to tell them the exact process and other details, they immediately recognized it as a specific issue they had seen before and we skipped the whole diagnosis back and forth. If I had gone in there and said, "the fan is running really high" I'd probably still be there.

michannne 7y ago
I do support along with my usual dev work and interface with users daily. I can't count the amount of times I've heard "I'm pretty sure it's because of..." followed by something completely unrelated, along with a stubborn resolve to not try the professional's recommended solution
- nkrisc 7y ago
  That's exactly what I try to avoid. I try to focus on the facts as they present themselves. Computer is hot, fan is running full speed, process X is hogging 90% of CPU resources, and to not offer what I think the problem is (because I might be wrong or there's some nuance I'm not aware of). I assume the people who manage our tech know its idiosyncracies, but at the same time I don't want them thinking it's because I keep every browser tab I've ever opened running at the same time.
- bonzini 7y ago
  Well, that goes both ways. My wife is a social media editor and former web editor, so she is not a technician but she knows browsers more than her average colleague. Whenever some internal application has issues, she has to go through the same 10 minutes of explanations that it must be Firefox's fault, every time she calls tech support, after which they agree that it is usually what she suspected the issue to be; or if she had no clue and all she could tell them is "I have tried both Firefox and Chrome" guess what, it's not Firefox vs. Chrome.
- golergka 7y ago
  Do you find that developers, system administrators and other IT professionals (the typical HN crowd) are just as guilty of this?
- Aeolun 7y ago
  I think I’m about 50/50 on thinking their solution is absolute bull and being right, and having made a retarded mistake and their solution solving everything.
  - exikyut 7y ago
    This seems like a very scalable sane default presumption, in any case.
- o-__-o 7y ago
  Or they give you a log snippet and fail to say _what_ log it came from. Context, people!
egdod 7y ago
I did similar recently. I emailed the support team with a screenshot of task manager showing what process it was, and I identified (with 30 seconds of googling) what product it was associated with. I like to think that saved everyone an hour of pointless fucking around.
- CalChris 7y ago
  I send a LOT of screen shots these days. Grab (OS X) to the clipboard, paste in text message or email. The screen shot usually has everything I want to point out while leaving out the unnecessary.
- bentcorner 7y ago
  If you're ever in this situation again, taking a performance trace is easy to do and potentially helpful for the triaging team. wpr -start GeneralProfile do something, or let process spin wpr -stop foo.etl Include foo.etl with your bug report. Be aware that it will include personal information from your machine (machine config, user paths, process names, etc.).
1024core 7y ago
As always, there's an XKCD for this: https://xkcd.com/806/ https://xkcd.com/806/
- runjake 7y ago
  We know. This XKCD is why this Twitter thread exists in the first place.

Shorel 7y ago

Even if you actually know the profession, their reaction is not good. Your approach seems more practical.

typhonic 7y ago

About 30 years ago I was being asked by some guy I barely knew to do something over the weekend. I didn't know how to tell him that I would rather just be at home with my family. Eventually and without thinking it through, I just said "It's my weekend with the kids." He instantly became apologetic and said he understood completely. And I instantly felt like a heel for pretending to be someone I'm not. I had accidentally identified with a group that suffers in a way I did not. It worked, but the experience has stuck with me. I don't like myself when I'm too afraid to be truthful and while I don't think I hurt the other guy, it was a close call. One that I try to avoid. edit:spelling

sneak 7y ago
It’s not your fault that the listener assumed you were divorced; you implied it (accidentally) but did not state it. You were not untruthful-what you said was literally and exactly correct. The assumptions made by a listener as a result of intentionally limited data are not your responsibility in any way, indeed even if you were able to predict them with any reasonable level of accuracy, which you are not. I have an essay pending on this exact topic.
- sbarre 7y ago
  Being deceptive might not mean being "untruthful" as you put it, but it's still deception.
- pavel_lishin 7y ago
  > I have an essay pending on this exact topic. We all look forward to reaching a conclusion you didn't intend us to due to our assumptions.
  - jacobush 7y ago
    I already made the conclusion!
- sujNansnam 7y ago
  You may feel this way, but the society you live in does not. http://www.glottopedia.org/index.php/Gricean_maxims http://www.glottopedia.org/index.php/Gricean_maxims I find it unlikely that you really abide by this stated disregard of implicit assumptions - it would make communication impossible. The amount of information required to convey even basic facts is encyclopedic if you and your conversational partner don’t make use of assumptions about what the other already knows.

GuB-42 7y ago

Always assume competence is, I think, a good strategy. People are more willing to help if you flatter their ego. And most importantly, sometimes, people really are competent.

cannonedhamster 7y ago
I spent three months with my corporate IT on a problem I'd diagnosed in 10 minutes, because in a previous life I was corporate IT and had experience doing exactly what they were doing. After explaining what and why I thought the issue was what I thought it was they told me I couldn't be right and I let them dig at it. After multiple calls to Microsoft, who was equally confused, they finally got to an advanced tech. They called me and told me proudly they'd discovered the issue. It was exactly what I'd said three months earlier. This is not the last time issues like this have come up with my corporate IT. I always assume incomptence unless shown otherwise. I'll be polite but I don't think it's always the right solution.
asjw 7y ago
It doesn't take you anywhere if they always answer "you use Linux? It must be that" Assume competence if they show competence If they don't, assume they will be part of the problem, you won't get any help and they will make the situation worse

mike_hock 7y ago

To some extent that was what the suggestions were about, though. Installing an IDE just to have the icon to show for it is a stupid hack that'll stop working once people see through the charade. OTOH, running the test suite and showing the failing tests or, if they pass, explaining very precisely what misbehavior you're seeing and how you reproduced it, is actually helpful. Be helpful to the extent of your competence but honest about its limits. Trying to bullshit when you clearly have no clue makes you annoying to work with, but so does being a noob who doesn't even try to understand what's going on and just wants someone else to do all the work.

driverdan 7y ago

I agree with your general sentiment but having basic knowledge and knowing some terminology can get you farther. It's like going to a foreign country and making an effort to speak their language. Even if you're bad at it and end up having a conversation in your native language they'll respect you for the effort. You wouldn't see a doctor and pretend to also be one but understanding some basic terminology and diagnostic procedure will help.

threwawasy1228 7y ago
I kind of take issue with the fact that this works, maybe not in your foreign language example but in general. I shouldn't have to learn the terminology of HVAC services or plumbing services or any service that I have no intention of learning more about to get better service. Every customer regardless of their knowledge of the service they are using should get a competent response without having to learn anything about that profession. That is the whole point of having a professional there working for you afterall.

Nextgrid 7y ago

I agree with this in cases of legitimate, friendly companies that are proud of what they do and want to provide a good service. This breaks down when dealing with monopolies and companies that are too big to fail. Customer service in their case is always monkeys (from my experience) - they aren’t paid enough to care, they don’t know anything about their company’s product/service (because a skilled person wouldn’t put up with the low pay and working conditions) and have very limited power in actually fixing your problem even when they understand it. In that case scaring them into escalating the call might be a better strategy than just running around in circles trying to make a monkey understand what you’re after.

Aeolun 7y ago

> Instead I describe as clearly as possible symptoms, timing/frequency, possibly related changes, things I've tried and results I've gotten, etc. What do you do if after all this, they still keep circling the problem?

scarejunba 7y ago
"Could it be X? I read in the Y that sometimes this happens with it" If you want to add authority pick Y = Newspaper. If you think the person will respond better to you placing yourself societally lower, say 'online' and weaken your statement with something like "but who knows how true that is" etc. The objective is to place the thought in their head but keep them believing they're putting the pieces together. You could even try "It's probably not Z, right? Like in that movie". There doesn't have to be a movie, no one will follow up. This part is hard because you really need to read their reactions and make sure you come off not as a kook hypochondriac but as a bumbling layman who just happened upon the right thing. Do it wrong and you'll be patronizing and insta-lose. Do it right and you'll get everything you want. I employ this + being as non-threatening as possible (cheerful, less smart than, less powerful than) + minor groveling ("would you mind doing this anyway, I know you're probably right but it'll make me feel so much better"). I get pretty quick service everywhere, even where other people complain. In general, though, this is last resort. Usually the fastest way to get good service is to rapidly and clearly comply with orders. Just like when you're debugging an issue, you've got a standard process, other professionals do too and letting them prune their search tree is important. You know that lingering feeling you have where you're like "maybe the DNS server is flaky, naaah it couldn't be"? That's what they're avoiding and giving that to them means you get bucketed it into "smooth interaction" which is superior to anything else because in the end, nothing works better than someone wanting to help you.
- tristor 7y ago
  Maybe I'm just internally resistant to appearing weak in interactions. I find that this never works for me. I always come off as patronizing and condescending, even when that is not my intention in any way. For me, at least, just being somewhat minimally competent and trying to self-service, then making that competence known and clear at the first contact seems to have the highest success rate. I think what method works best really depends on your personality type. I agree that the goal is to ensure that you are making the interaction smooth by get the person you're asking for help what they need. But I also see asking for help as two different modes. 1. I'm asking for help because I am not empowered (access controls, specialty tools) to fix my own issue, but if I had been so empowered I could have resolved it on my own easily. 2. I'm asking for help because I don't know the solution, but I'm competent enough to narrow it to a particular trouble area. In #2, I acknowledge outright, internally and externally, that because I am asking for help I have reached the limit of my competence. My request is inherently respectful, because I'm acknowledging the superior competence of the person(s) I'm asking for help from, but out of respect for their time I do my best to ask a good question and provide all the necessary details to make helping me a low friction event. In the case of #1... often it's better to aggressively establish your own competence to get them to just do what you need done. Unfortunately in the world of large organizations and bureaucracy you will deal with a lot of incompetent people who are put in a position of some tiny fraction of power over you. You need to get them to exercise that power to your benefit, but you also need to not alienate them so they withhold it. People with only a small amount of power can be extraordinarily vindictive, so it's best to approach them with a measure of respect, but also clearly establish the boundaries of the interaction so you can proceed as quickly as possible and be on with your life. I've worked roles in which I was in both situations on the other side of the table, but I had enough self-awareness to realize when I was the monkey in #1 and I did my best to be as efficient as possible and let people get on with it. In situation #2, I understand very deeply the frustration of having someone essentially toss something over the wall and in so doing show their disrespect for your competence and the value of your time. As always, you want to go through life without making other people feel badly, but taking a submissive pathway will not always work for you, especially if that is not in your nature.

nimbius 7y ago

Speaking as an automotive mechanic and a tradesman, nothing sounds more despicable than this half-ass attempt to "game" human interaction to save a few precious seconds in your day. You wouldn't do this with a doctor. You wouldn't do it with a police officer. So why do it with me? Or tech people? Are they somehow less impressive? I mean you are seeking their help. Maybe show some respect. if you're ever at the garage waiting on a repair, just speak English. Yeah I know my questions are going to be a little basic and repetitive sometimes but they're for my understanding. What sounds like a waste of breath for you is actually helping me to formulate a solution and troubleshoot a problem. Work with me, not around me.

technofiend 7y ago
>Speaking as an automotive mechanic and a tradesman, nothing sounds more despicable than this half-ass attempt to "game" human interaction to save a few precious seconds in your day. Doctors enjoy a higher reputation for "honesty and ethical standards" [1] and have the specter of medical malpractice if they yield a misdiagnosis, particularly if it's one that harms the patient. There is no equivalent for mechanics and frankly the public on average trusts mechanics far less than doctors. Auto mechanics got 32% in the high/very high trust category vs 67% for doctors in the latest Gallup poll. [1] Anecdotally distrust of mechanics is such an issue I distinctly remember my youngest sister getting approached by car dealers from all over the city after she took auto shop in high school. She was told dealership repair shops needed women because some female customers simply didn't trust what they were being told by male repair shop representatives. Despite this apparent need the pay offered wasn't enough to entice her from just working at the O'Reilly Auto Parts down the street. [1] https://news.gallup.com/poll/1654/honesty-ethics-professions.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/1654/honesty-ethics-professions...
asjw 7y ago
I do it with the doctor! We have mandatory visits at work here in Italy and to save time when I go there, instead of following the usual routine, I say immediately: my grandfather suffered from high pressure, my mom has been curing her high pressure her entire life, I also probably have it so if you find high pressure, I know everything about it already. Also my parents worked in healthcare, you can use medical terms, I get those. I also tells them I suffer from a genetic heart condition, not worrying, but existent. It's called anamnesi, it's a necessary process to establish the patient's background and saves a lot of time to the both of us. They don't have to explain to me that I should avoid using salt and all the side effects of a condition I know very well and I don't have to listen to things I already know, since 40 years ago.