Basic computer competency starts with reading the error message.

I’ve worked in IT and you’d be amazed how many people are stuck with some problem that would be fixed if they just read the error message on their screen.

For example, it might say:

Error! The green button needs to be pressed. It’s on your keyboard. It’s green. It also has lettering on it that says PRESS HERE.

People will bring their computer in, at a total loss for what to do.

The sales are continuous at Lowe’s. Probably other stores too, but I can say that I worked for Lowe’s for about 15 months and during that time we always had a sale going.

It’s a ruse to provide an artificial sense of urgency. One sale would end say 1/13 and on 1/14 we’d take down all the signage from that sale and put up the signage got the next sale.

I’m constantly amazed at how many people don’t understand the concepts of basic finance and how compound interest works.

Years ago, I brought my laptop with me to buy a car so I could plug all the numbers into a quick amortization schedule. The sales person offered me a choice of $1,500 cash back or 1.9% financing instead of the typical rate a few percentage points higher.

I plugged the numbers into my spreadsheet and saw taking the cash back would cost me a couple grand more than the lower finance rate. When I told him I wanted the finance rate instead of the cash back, he mentioned that I was the only person he’d seen not take the cash back.

Maybe he was pulling my chain, but in my experience, the average person doesn’t know what compound interest is, let alone what an amortization schedule is.

xkcd#2501:

If you’re pulling on a rope really hard, don’t wrap it around your hand to get a better grip. If it starts to pull away from you, you won’t be able to let go, and if someone runs up to help and starts hauling on the end, your hand is going to be in a world of pain.

As someone who works with tech, here is my 2 cents on basic knowledge.

If your computer is “not working” restarting the computer can generally fix 80 percent of the issues. We are not trying to make you mad, this is literraly first thing I am doing if you present me a problem.

Stop downloading things from unknown sources.

Use generic effects/fonts on your powerpoint. Just because you bought something cool doesnt mean it will magically transfer when you pass your presnetation to another computer for your presentation. (Microsoft does not migrate your paid effects)

For gamers Stop playing pvp on your pc/console on wifi, are you a mad?

Everyone in general We are at an age of computers. Learn how to type, it will save you tremendous amount of time, literally.

I honestly have no idea what your first paragraph is about. It might as well be in Chinese.

I’m a molecular biologist. I was recently surprised when I told someone that RNA is a thing that all living thing are brimming with. He thought that RNA was something scientists invented in 2020s to use as COVID vaccines.

I also once worked with someone who had a degree in biological sciences and was shocked to learn that female cows have vaginas. She didn’t explain where she thought baby cows come from, but we decided not to push the matter and changed the subject.

Not really completely on topic, but there’s an app called Kinnu. It’s free, and gamifies learning- like Duolingo but for a really wide variety of topics. So far I’ve done the pathways on learning, ikigai (Japanese concept of reason for living/being), logic and cognitive biases. They have pathways on other things too, like history, various sciences, philosophies, even personal finance (probably the next one I do).

It’s a great way to kill 2-5 minutes a day and Ive learned a ton.

How to do basic DIY. Do you know all the functions of your drill? Can you screw something in to wood, brick, plaster - for dab and cavity? What fixings and screw types should you use? Can you re-wire a plug? Change a tap? Wire an Ethernet connector and punchdown? Balance your books, calculate your tax, basic car maintenance…?

As a software engineer or IT person it’s easy to think we’re all so very smart, but anyone skilled in ANYTHING will know so much you don’t in their own subject.

Basically everyone is an idiot about most things.

I’m a developmental psychologist, and the biggest thing is people just not knowing what “psychologist” means.

The tl;dr here is:

Most psychologists aren’t therapists. Most therapists aren’t psychologists. If you’re looking for quality mental health care, don’t revere the “doctor.”

A “psychologist” refers to someone with a PhD in psychology (or someone who does psychological research within an interdisciplinary field, like education or human development). Critically, a psychologist is a researcher (and often an educator at the college+ level). Psychology is a massive field, and the most common subfields are cognitive, developmental, social, clinical, and neurobio.

A “clinical psychologist” is a research psychologist is the particular subfield of clinical psychology. Along with research, clinical psychologists usually learn clinical psychotherapy practices and then may (or may not) choose to incorporate offering therapy into their career. A similar path is the “PsyD” (doctor of psychology) which also falls under the “psychologist” heading. Like a clinical psych PhD, a PsyD has had advanced training in research and practice, but the balance of the degree leans much more toward practice. People who opt for a PsyD rather than PhD usually plan to pursue a fully clinical career, but are qualified to do research as well.

A “therapist” is someone who is trained and licensed to provide clinical psychotherapy. Most therapists in the US have a master’s degree in social work (or a few others, like counseling psychology), specialized clinical training in one or more areas or treatments, and additional state licensure requirements. Clinical and counseling psychologists (with PhDs) can act as therapists if they get and maintain licenses, but this is a small fraction of therapists. PsyDs make up another chunk, but the majority do not have a terminal PhD/PsyD.

As a psychologist, I don’t say this because I think my PhD makes me better than someone with an MSW — the reverse! I hear people get advice to not see a therapist if they are “just” a social worker without a PhD. Meanwhile people come up to my dumbass self and think I am qualified to act as a therapist or like I know anything about clinical or abnormal psychology. Like, wanna know how 2-year-olds and 12-year-olds use nonverbal signals like shrugs to facilitate conversational interaction differently from each other and from adults? No? Then I am not the person you’re looking for. Go talk to that extremely knowledgeable and well-trained person with an MA.

…Meanwhile a “psychiatrist” is a whole other thing. They have an MD and can prescribe medication. Very rarely they may also offer psychotherapy, but that’s hard to make happen in the US a healthcare system.

You’re ignorant of most things, and recognizing this is one of the most important things to growth as a person.

I work at a bakery. The number of people who ask for half a loaf of bread (normal to buy in this area, but they’re not pre-cut), then get upset when I pick up a whole loaf so I can cut half off is mind blowing to me. I’m also not a native speaker and autistic, so I’m wary of being inadvertently way too rude if I comment on it.

Microbial pathogenesis here. This one’s a fun one for me, especially since COVID revealed just how illiterate the average person is about diseases. Here’s a couple that I think should be common sense

• Not all bacteria cause disease. In fact, very few bacteria cause disease. Many bacteria are even helpful to us, so you should really weigh the pros and cons of taking antibiotics if you’re considering using antibiotics.

• Antibiotics don’t work against viral infections. You’re getting all the downsides of killing helpful bacteria and getting none of the benefits

• Do not blindly trust your immune system. Your immune system works 100% of 50% of the time. Many white blood cells take the philosophy of murdering everything in sight just to be safe. This can and often does include killing important cells in your body that just happen to be nearby the site of infection. Even if you survive the infection, you will be weakened as a result. If you can avoid getting sick in the first place, avoid getting sick.

• Vaccines work. I don’t really know what else to say about this one.

• Viruses and bacteria aren’t hard to kill. There’s many compounds that can kill viruses and bacteria. But humans aren’t hard to kill either. The tricky part is figuring out how to kill viruses and bacteria while also keeping the human alive. Basically: don’t drink bleach. It will kill your bacteria or virus but it’ll kill you too

• E. coli isn’t a usually bad bacteria. Actually, it’s a very important bacteria that helps us digest food. The reason it gets such a bad reputation is because it’s relatively hard to kill, which makes them a very good way to quickly check if there’s a possible food/water contamination. In other words, the presence of E. coli itself isn’t bad, but finding E. coli does suggest that there might be other, more dangerous bacteria.

• DO NOT EAT MOLDY FOOD. The fuzzy part that you see is just the fruiting body of the mold, analogous to a flower on a plant. The real body of the mold is an invisible network of roots that tunnel through the core of the food. Even if you cut off the fuzzy portion, you’re still eating most of the mold.

Basic knife skills is something I’m often almost shocked by. I had a housemate last year who’d bought herself a decent Sabatier chef’s knife (like this) but the way she cut veg, she may as well have been using a sharpened bit of moss. All the gear and no idea. Thankfully she forgot to take it with her or something when she moved out so it’s my knife now.