.... those who want to learn how to use their computers and gadgets and those who say they want to. I don't know why it's taken me so long to figure this out, but I have a feeling that now that I have my life will be much more serene. Up to this point I have always assumed that when someone asked me to show them how to do something, like change their desktop background or email their photos to their kids, they really wanted to learn. And I would try to teach them. With mixed results. Extremely mixed. Sometimes things would go well and other times not. There might be some stomping off involved. Sometimes.
So here's what I've discovered. A typical request for help starts out, "Can you show me how to do X." Some people mean it. Others mean "I can't figure this out myself, and frankly I don't want to, but it sure would be nice if you'd just do it for me and then I won't have to." The problem is that the second group never says that. Don't ask me why.
So the trick is to find out which group people are in before the fight starts. Because the people in the second group will never remember what you show them, because they weren't paying attention, they were just waiting until you fixed the problem for them and they could go back to what they really wanted to do.
I think I've been slow to figure this out because I enjoy solving problems and I love all the latest tech gadgets. It's been difficult for me to accept that not everyone is as excited as I am. But alas, they are not. So in the future, I'm going to be sure to ask the right questions at the outset, "Would you like me to do that for you? Or do you really want to learn how to do it yourself?"