Flies
I was waiting in a lobby. Having nothing much to think about, all my attention was drawn to the very annoying fly trying to cross closed windows. Other than the annoying noises a fly usually make, this one almost made a symphony repeatedly banging itself into the surrounding windows. I only sat there for around 5 minutes, but I almost turned crazy. It reminded me of that time where the printer repair guy had to install the new network printer. The guy had absolutely no idea of what he was doing. Even if he was sent by the selling company as the top-notch technician, the guy would simply go over the installation/uninstallation steps trying all setting combination until it would work.
Of course, the smart way would have been to stop for a minute and read the software’s documentation, which he had in a 3 inch thick binder. He didn’t do it. Just like that fly, he kept banging himself to all windows until he actally go to try the door while it was open. But I’m not blaming the fly. It’s not like it knew what a door is.
The impressive part is that he actually carried that binder around, even if he had no intention of reading it at all. Why he printed it out in the first place is an other of those mysteries. Maybe having that documentation made him look more serious to managers, or maybe he feels more secure with the answer to all his questions close to him.
Without having the pleasure to observe a printer repair technician in a typical office environment, you can observe the similar phenomenon in universities. It’s the same thing, but with larger proportions. All the students buy the reccommended book accompanying the course. Some never actually open it. They carry it around the whole semester in case the professor explicitly asks to open it during a class. Many sell it brand new a few months later, but some simply place it on a shelf (shelves filled with books you never read, can you think of a better way to look smart?).
I guess we all have our moments where we know nothing of what we’re doing and still keep trying. At least, any self-thought programmer had some moments in early days when trying to figure out the logic behind the constructs. The documentation is never that far from reach, but having to read it is an effort. With some luck, that next try will save all that reading time. I still happen to do it when trying to figure out which one of padding or margin will give the appropriate spacing in an XSL-FO table. Fortunately, I don’t have to do it that often. One day, I will try searching for that nice diagram that explains it all, print it and hang it straight next to my monitor.