[ankaAr]

In the 90's my dad had a tech support/service company. Small one, less than 10 employees. Fixing monitors was an every day task.

One day a petroleum engineer came with his monitor (from the company he was working) to fix it.

After 1 or 2 days it was fixed and they came to get it back.

After few hours the engineer called very angry.

-it is not my monitor!

-oh, it cannot be

-it is not!

-is this brand and model?

-yes

-read me the service tag at the back

-this

-it is your monitor sir.

-is not and I want my monitor back

-sir, it is your monitor

-no!

So he came back with his monitor. It was his monitor, the technicians tested it again.

-sir, this is your monitor.

-no, I had a completely different background, and different programs, it is not my monitor

-wait, what?

The technicians called the it department and told them the situation.

While the monitor was in service, IT used that free time to update his computer.

The engineer leave my dad's place not 100% convinced

If you are that engineer, the story is still alive 25 years later. Thank you.

[johnchristopher]

I don't understand how these people got their degree or keep up with the times while being so... arrogant ? sure of themselves ?

What other important things do they not get ? Or is it just computer stuff ?

[checkyoursudo]

Both my father and father-in-law are like this (both engineers, though I am not sure that has anything to do with it).

It is not just computer stuff, but it definitely happens there. I don't know what it is exactly, but it seems to have to do with expectations and assumptions about their ability to observe and predict. They expect the world to be in just this certain way, and if the world is not, then it is the world that is wrong--not them, by god.

I think it has gotten worse as they have aged, though I don't know that there is a correlation with age (e.g., like not necessarily cognitive decline or something) as much as just this deepening, crystallising certainty that has come by the mere fact of continuing to operate this way.

[utucuro]

It is not necessarily age itself. My father is approaching 80, computer literate since '86, and keeps adapting to whatever new thing comes out, even adapting to fluke versions of windows like 8 or 11...

Small note to all frontend people: he'd be happier if you stopped using low-contrast anything and small fonts, thank you very much.

[kalupa]

I think we'd all be happier if the low-contrast design trend ends

[jimmydddd]

I think my dad was like this also. When I was a kid, my dad was an engineering manager. A few times a week he would tell stories about how stupid all of the engineers that worked under him were and that they were always doing everything wrong. Now that I'm older, I think the issue was probably that my dad was not a good manager. :-)

[sameerds]

I know of a highly experienced person who once opened an email attachment, edited it, and then claimed "I saved my copy in Yahoo!". No amount of asking would make him that he ignored the dialog box that asked him to save a copy.

[f1shy]

I know PhD in technical areas, that still today could male such scene

[prox]

Ah what a great story, reminds me of the webguy vs salesdude video. If you don’t know what that is, look it up :)

[BogdanPetre]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRGljemfwUE

[streakfix]

Psyonix implemented the vehicles in original Halo game after which they made supersonic acrobatic rocket powered battle cars followed by rocket league.

[prox]

This is such a cool detail! I just watched and I can kind of see the mechanics at work (or maybe I imagine it after the fact)

[folmar]

I think the first part of the title is more recognizable, i.e. "The Website is Down".