The Difference Between Computer Experts and The Rest of Us

My recent observation that there are no keys for commonly-used fractions on my computer keyboard (whereas the typewriters I used to use all had such keys) produced some kindly-meant comments from computer experts, such as this one from Mr Main:

'If you are using a Windows computer, there is a vast array of additional characters and symbols that can be used by calling up symbol sheets from within the standard editor and then selecting the required symbol using the computer mouse. ' 

Help!

 

This post beautifully illustrates a truth about the world which I think many computer buffs will never grasp. Most of us have no idea what they are talking about.

 

Those who can happily use computers can write or say things such as :'There is a vast array of additional characters and symbols that can be used by calling up symbol sheets from within the standard editor and then selecting the required symbol using the computer mouse.' and imagine that all readers will know what they mean and follow them easily.

But to me, and those like me, such instructions are almost as terrifying as the idea of trying to perform a complex surgical operation according to expert instructions given to us over a crackly telephone. I have no idea what any of these instructions mean. I could as well 'call up symbol sheets from within the standard editor' as I could successfully call spirits from the vasty deep.

 

To me this is more impenetrable than the Finno-Ugric group of languages. (Actually, when I lived in Moscow, I was rescued from my many computer disasters by a wonderfully calm and reliable Finn, whom I begged never to try to explain to me what he was doing, in case the attempt drove me round the bend). In total emergencies, experts in London would talk me through the cure, step by painful step, over a faint international telephone line. I have always felt very sorry for them.