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> Let me take a look Exactly what the crafty older person wanted. Get you to do the work. "It doesn't work on my computer" or some other claim of trouble or ig

> Let me take a look Exactly what the crafty older person wanted. Get you to do the work. "It doesn't work on my computer" or some other claim of trouble or ignorance is an easy way to trick a smart energetic young person to do something for you. Young smart people don't like to say "I don't know how" or "I can't get it to work." An older person will say that without hesitation if it will prompt someone else to do something that he doesn't want to do himself.

zarmin 5y ago
>he doesn't want to do himself. "want"?
godshatter 5y ago
My help comes at a price; they are going to sit there with me and listen to me blather on about what I'm looking at and what I find and what the solution was :)
antonchekhov 5y ago
This is an uncharitably suspicious inferring of the other person's motives. Is it required that the "older person" self-identify their technical limitations every time, before you will read their verbalization of the situation as a basic statement of frustration and/or admission of technical defeat? For many people, the notion of debugging a MySQL installation on Windows so that it works seems about as plausible as summitting K2 - they don't expect others nearby can simply do it, either. (Also, the suggestion of inter-generational manipulation is not attractive.)
- ryandrake 5y ago
  I don’t think it’s uncharitable. It just recognizes that there are always energetic problem solvers out there who will jump at the chance to prove someone wrong. It’s kind of like the well known technique: “If you want the right answer to your question, confidently post the wrong answer and wait for the replies.”
- sidpatil 5y ago
  > This is an uncharitably suspicious inferring of the other person's motives. Agreed. The charitable interpretation is a lot more reasonable: a parent/elder wants to spend time with their child/younger, and is even taking an interest in their career/hobbies.
NoSorryCannot 5y ago
I'd say the implied request for help or at least ideas for troubleshooting or alternatives is so obvious and natural that it doesn't merit this level of suspicion about ulterior motives. It's completely normal to say "I can't reach the top shelf" and mean "can you help me get something off the top shelf?" As an aside, commonplace implicatures like these are a kind of what's called "pragmatics" in linguistics.

zarmin 5y ago

>he doesn't want to do himself. "want"?

godshatter 5y ago

My help comes at a price; they are going to sit there with me and listen to me blather on about what I'm looking at and what I find and what the solution was :)

antonchekhov 5y ago

This is an uncharitably suspicious inferring of the other person's motives. Is it required that the "older person" self-identify their technical limitations every time, before you will read their verbalization of the situation as a basic statement of frustration and/or admission of technical defeat? For many people, the notion of debugging a MySQL installation on Windows so that it works seems about as plausible as summitting K2 - they don't expect others nearby can simply do it, either. (Also, the suggestion of inter-generational manipulation is not attractive.)

ryandrake 5y ago
I don’t think it’s uncharitable. It just recognizes that there are always energetic problem solvers out there who will jump at the chance to prove someone wrong. It’s kind of like the well known technique: “If you want the right answer to your question, confidently post the wrong answer and wait for the replies.”
sidpatil 5y ago
> This is an uncharitably suspicious inferring of the other person's motives. Agreed. The charitable interpretation is a lot more reasonable: a parent/elder wants to spend time with their child/younger, and is even taking an interest in their career/hobbies.

NoSorryCannot 5y ago

I'd say the implied request for help or at least ideas for troubleshooting or alternatives is so obvious and natural that it doesn't merit this level of suspicion about ulterior motives. It's completely normal to say "I can't reach the top shelf" and mean "can you help me get something off the top shelf?" As an aside, commonplace implicatures like these are a kind of what's called "pragmatics" in linguistics.