[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. :-)