• AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net
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    17 days ago

    You’re right, and that really cooks my brain. Whenever I think about this, I’m thoroughly perturbed, because I don’t feel especially technically proficient, but occasionally I get reminders of how that’s not true (relative to most people). It’s very much the energy of Xkcd “Average Familiarity”

    A little while ago, for example, I was helping a friend troubleshoot why their computer kept crashing, and I was talking them through parsing Windows Event Viewer. They felt a bit overwhelmed by all the info, though I tried to reassure them that I didn’t understand most of what was there, I was just good at finding what was relevant to me and ignoring the rest.

    Most of it is just in the confidence that arises from tinkering with things for many years, even casually. Like, of the people who press F12 (possibly by accident) and aren’t able to grok it, the majority of people will panic and close the window, and a small subsection will study what they see and find that they can probably parse at least some of it.