[david422]

This is my mom. Trying to walk her through steps on the phone like logins and lost passwords is a nightmare.

I imagine it would be like a car mechanic trying to walk me through changing the oil over the phone. Since it's not in my interests, I just want it to work, I don't have any desire to learn it.

[soylentcola]

At the same time, oil changes are more of a hassle that you only need to deal with every year or two. You can get away with not bothering to sort it out (and even if you know how, it might be worth the extra cost to just pay someone to do it faster on those rare occasions).

But if you use a computer to access resources and services on the web, you probably do so much more frequently than you change your oil. I'd liken it more to knowing how the turn signals, headlight controls, and wipers work on a car.

You don't need to know how to repair those items or how exactly they operate. But since that familiarity is something inherent to the operation of a car, you should at least know the basics of usage if you plan to do much driving.

[rspeele]

> (and even if you know how, it might be worth the extra cost to just pay someone to do it faster on those rare occasions)

Going off on a tangent:

I thought that this would be the case when I switched to changing my own oil -- if I was feeling lazy, I could always have the shop do it. But I found out right away that when the local quick-change place does it, they tighten the drain plug and oil filter to roughly a zillion ft-lbs. So if I pay them to do it, I am making the job way more of a pain in the butt for myself next time I want to do it, because I'll spend half an hour just struggling to remove those.

[soylentcola]

I just stopped bothering when it got harder to access the filter/drain and I moved to the city where I park on the street. I'm much less interested in farting around under the car, getting messy, and spending a half hour or more to drain the oil, replace the filter, and refill.

At some point I just decided it was worth the extra cost to be in and out quickly. And honestly, when you add up the cost of replacement filter and oil, the premium isn't terrible when you add in time saved. I like knowing how to do it, but it's been several years since I bothered.

[frosted-flakes]

Top-side filters and oil extraction pumps make oil changes almost effortless. The biggest problem for me is disposing of the oil. There are several vehicles in my family, and the old oil just collects in jugs by the garage door. The nearest hazardous waste centre at the landfill will only accept two jugs at a time, and they won't take 5 gallon buckets at all. They will not accept 10 jugs (<2 years' worth), let alone 30. It's like they want me to pour it down the drain or something!

[pitaj]

Often parts stored like AutoZone, O'Reilly's etc accept waste oil.

[EvanAnderson]

This. I had a similar situation to the GP poster-- years of used oil piled up in jugs in the garage. One trip to a local parts store and the issue was resolved. It was shockingly easy.

[WarOnPrivacy]

You aren't wrong. We often had to screwdriver the filters loose.

We moved to a bigger property, have 5 cars. It's easier now to change 2 or 3 at a time.

[somedude895]

Same with my mum. It's really insightful to try to see things through her eyes. For example not understanding context like which app she's currently in blew my mind at first, but totally makes sense.

[TeMPOraL]

> I imagine it would be like a car mechanic trying to walk me through changing the oil over the phone. Since it's not in my interests, I just want it to work, I don't have any desire to learn it.

Really?

I don't believe there exists a task I theoretically could perform if I knew the steps, that I would be unable to do if those steps were being explained to me by an expert. Even if it was gardening or cooking (two areas I have extremely little interest in). In my mind, this very concept doesn't parse.

On the other hand, I do know people like this, and I hate helping others with computers over the phone.

I believe this has nothing to do with one's intelligence or familiarity. More like some kind of general intellectual or emotional "closedness" - an instinctive refusal to do things out of one's comfort zone, even if one is guided step-by-step, and refusing to take those steps causes a huge loss. I have no idea how this comes about, as it's totally alien to me, except that I see it in most people.

[cameronh90]

There are some tasks that require finesse, like hovering a helicopter, riding a bicycle or even balancing a clutch.

Most people can't do those initially no matter how much an expert explains it - until they build up the muscle memory. Cooking and gardening are like that but to a much lesser extent.

Of course typing into a URL bar is nothing like that.

[TeMPOraL]

Yup, I've explicitly excluded such tasks from consideration (perhaps not clearly enough). My claim was only about tasks that don't require tacit knowledge or experience in addition to detailed enough step-by-step instructions.

With references to gardening, I meant stuff like e.g. how to correctly replant a flower. I have no first clue how to do it, but I'm confident I could do it successfully if I had a gardener guiding me through the process step by step.

[asdff]

at least today you can share your screen on zoom and demo what you are talking about