I can understand stuff.
I pick up an unfamiliar piece of equipment, and pretty much intuitively figure out how to operate it. This means that everyone thinks I know how to fix or operate just about anything. I can't, but equally I can't understand why other people can't see the blindingly obvious in front of them.

I'm crap at doing paperwork, or turning up early (or indeed on time).
(gordonjcp, Sun 21 Nov 2010, 9:19, 8 replies)

I can generally figure out things like this too
and being girl, if I can't figure them out then I can look at the instructions. With instructions I can pretty much always work out how to put things together and/or pull them apart. Even if they come from Ikea.

This used to really shit my ex, who prided himself on being a car guy but generally only fixed things if I stood there with the Haynes manual saying "hhmm... I think if you do this..." which apparently is not the right answer (the right answer is "yes dear I know, it's totally impossible, here have a beer").
(xanthine, Sun 21 Nov 2010, 9:23, closed)

same here
i think a lot of people are just idiots
(roadkillontoast, Sun 21 Nov 2010, 9:26, closed)

Same as above.
It's simply a matter of looking at things, and then following them back to see how they work.
It just about the only thing where my patience wears thin; watching other people struggle with the blindingly obvious.
I think it helps if you also have an interest in how pretty much everything works.
(dchurch bah, Sun 21 Nov 2010, 10:49, closed)

I can usually work this out but -
my last computer was an HP Pavilion, succumbed to cooling problems it did. Anyway it came with a black & silver box about half the size of a cigarette packet. There was one lead with a stereo 1/8" plug at the end and two sockets in it. I am buggered if I know what the damn thing was for and there were no instructions at all. I even looked on-line a few times but drew a blank. Amplifer? No power input. Some sort of signal splitter? No. Anyway the main box of sorrow blew up before I found out what it was for and I chucked the thing out.
(Redemption blamed it on the Bossa Nova since, Sun 21 Nov 2010, 11:28, closed)

Miss! Miss! I know!
It was an infrared receiver so you could use the htpc capabilities whilst lazing on the sofa. I only know because I had one. I ended up using it on a MythTV box I built.
( SteamedCleaner, Mon 22 Nov 2010, 10:18, closed)

Another here
Things are, by and large, designed to be reasonably easy to use; I don't understand why so many people have problems. If all else fails you can just start pressing buttons to see what they do, investigate the menus and whatnot. Just be cautious about pressing OK if asked whether you want to delete or overwrite....
(littlesunshine licked your blinky diodes on, Sun 21 Nov 2010, 11:43, closed)

Same here.
I can usually figure out most things in a day or two. However, Mum's HDD recorder remains sadly beyond me. Not to worry though, I part-exed it for a laptop and had her use that instead. Far easier.
( jim_bob can herd cats., Sun 21 Nov 2010, 14:27, closed)

The thing I find amazing...
...is not the people who don't know how to use a computer (e.g. my mum - fair enough, I say), but those who apparently do, but have enormous gaps in their basic knowledge. Typified by this kind of exchange:

Person X: "Right, I've produced this spreadsheet with pivot tables, data analysis out the wazoo, and coloured blinkylights. How do I get it onto my USB stick?"

Me: "Just open up Windows explorer, and drag the file to drive E:"

Person X: "Explorer? File? Drag? Drive? Huh? Whuh? Uh?"
( Amish Information Systems hates misplaced, commas, Mon 22 Nov 2010, 16:48, closed)