Shoutout to the guy at the coffee shop who asked 'What's the dumbest question you've ever heard?'

Honestly, I was just grabbing a coffee yesterday and overheard this guy at the next table ask his friend that. His friend laughed and said, 'Someone once asked me if they needed to turn off their computer to change the wallpaper.' Ngl, I almost snorted my latte. It got me thinking though, because I work IT help desk and I've heard way worse. Like the person who called because their monitor was 'broken' and it was just unplugged. But the coffee shop guy's point was that there's no such thing as a dumb question if you're genuinely trying to learn. It made me realize I get annoyed sometimes at work, but people are just trying to figure stuff out. Has anyone else had a moment where a simple overheard thing totally shifted how you handle basic questions?

3 comments

3 Comments

alicesingh7d ago

You know what gets me, the real issue is how we set people up to fail. We hand them tech without any real training and then act shocked when they don't know the basics. @the_betty has the right idea making them walk through it, because that's how you learn. My take is the dumbest question is the one someone is too scared to ask, so they just stay stuck. That coffee shop guy was onto something, because frustration just makes people hide their confusion.

shaneb1618d ago

That "no such thing as a dumb question" line is a nice idea, but it's just not true in the real world. Some questions show a total lack of effort, like not checking if something is plugged in before calling for help. That wastes everyone's time. Why should basic problem solving be optional?

the_betty18d ago

Totally get where you're coming from. I used to just jump in and fix things for people, but that just trained them to ask first every time. Now I ask them to walk me through what they've already tried, which forces a little effort. It cuts down on the silly stuff real quick.