Geeks and Politics
Running a computer store means you get exposed to a large number of computer end users. The whole reason a computer store can exist is because the vast majority of people that own a computer don’t really understand how they work or how to fix them when they break. Of course that’s really putting it mildly. I’ve learned through experience that a more accurate description would be to say that most people don’t have a clue what’s going on.
When people come across someone who has figured out a couple things and has the ability to explain those things to some degree and/or can make problems go away those who are less knowledgeable latch on to them like like a monkey to an organ grinder.
And that’s where the problem starts. Just because you know more than most doesn’t mean you should really be offering people advice or running a store. If you don’t REALLY know what you’re doing you wind up causing more harm than good in the long run.
Is Vista better or worse than XP? How much RAM do you actually need? Do you need a laptop or a desktop?
Politics work much the same way computers stores and computer gurus do. We find someone who can explain things to us in a way we can understand them and follow them. A guru, with the right charisma, can provide perfectly sound and easy to follow guidance that we follow without question. But whose interests are being served?
There is nothing to prevent gurus from furthering their own goals at the expense of consumers. A distributor could start offering a new whitebook that your local guru would like to play with perhaps for no other reason than it’s new and would be cool to check out.
Answering the questions of whether or not you need a laptop or not and then which laptop is right for you can easily be swayed by what shiny new toy is available and what that particular guru feels like playing with. Perhaps the guru doesn’t know that much about laptops and would prefer not learn about them at your expense. A nice enough idea unless a laptop is what you really need and they talk you out of it.
Do we need to be in Afganistan? Should we surge there? What do we do if Iran goes nuts with their nuclear plans? We elected the people that make these decisions for us. It occurs to me that we choose those elected officials in much the same way that we choose computer stores.
I remember Obama talking about the need to reform healthcare. He was quite reassuring and delivered his message with a level of charisma we haven’t seen in years. A true pied piper to the masses. But have you ever seen his resume? What experience does he have repairing defective health care systems? While he has expressed many opinions across a variety of topics, do you know enough about those topics to decide if he’s on the right track?
We should choose computer stores and politicians the same way we choose employees. What experience do these folks have? What tasks have they successfully completed and what bearing do those tasks have on those that lie before them? What level and type of integrity to they possess?
If you’re looking for someone to fix your computer, ask them what their background is. How long have they been doing it? Who did they learn from? What kind of guarantee to they offer on their work? How much time to they spend finding out what you want to do with your computer? How does their recommendation support your computing needs?
It’s the answers to these questions that are important more than their ability to deliver them. After all, if they sound good but aren’t correct you will have another bill. If you get good answers but the delivery is off, they can always sign up with the toastmasters.