Waving a dead chicken and other voodoo
Posted 01-25-09 at 03:38 AM by error10
It seems there are a large number of members here who, when confronted with a technical problem, just make wild guesses as to what it might be, instead of actually trying to solve it. There are also a large number of members here who, when confronted with a technical problem, disengage their brains completely when asking for help.
This drives me absolutely nuts.
Computers are (for now) completely deterministic. If there's a problem, there is a cause and a way to resolve it that's guaranteed to work. The hardest part is often finding out what the problem is in the first place!
Part of the problem is that some people who are having problems don't give enough detail to determine what the problem is. I've lost count of the number of people whose posts basically amount to "It doesn't work" without sufficient detail to determine what doesn't work, let alone what the error is or what might be going wrong!
Now some people approach this by throwing out semi-random suggestions of "things to try" to fix the problem. Much of the time these things are completely useless, because the person "trying to help" has no idea what the problem is!
Of course sometimes they get lucky, and whatever bit of voodoo they suggested actually solves whatever problem it was, so they begin to believe in the power of voodoo, instead of the power of understanding what is actually going on inside one's computer.
I obviously don't like this one bit, or I wouldn't be saying anything about it. I prefer not to approach anything this way. Instead, by determining exactly what is going on, it becomes much easier to find the actual solution to whatever the problem is.
It seems to work better that way.
Learn how to ask better questions and you'll get better answers. I suggest you read that now, even if you don't think you need to. Eventually you will. Even I have to ask questions sometimes!
And one final hint: Use a descriptive thread title. I skip threads which contain "help" or "question" in the title. So do many other people. I just don't have time for it.
This drives me absolutely nuts.
Computers are (for now) completely deterministic. If there's a problem, there is a cause and a way to resolve it that's guaranteed to work. The hardest part is often finding out what the problem is in the first place!
Part of the problem is that some people who are having problems don't give enough detail to determine what the problem is. I've lost count of the number of people whose posts basically amount to "It doesn't work" without sufficient detail to determine what doesn't work, let alone what the error is or what might be going wrong!
Now some people approach this by throwing out semi-random suggestions of "things to try" to fix the problem. Much of the time these things are completely useless, because the person "trying to help" has no idea what the problem is!
Of course sometimes they get lucky, and whatever bit of voodoo they suggested actually solves whatever problem it was, so they begin to believe in the power of voodoo, instead of the power of understanding what is actually going on inside one's computer.
I obviously don't like this one bit, or I wouldn't be saying anything about it. I prefer not to approach anything this way. Instead, by determining exactly what is going on, it becomes much easier to find the actual solution to whatever the problem is.
It seems to work better that way.
Learn how to ask better questions and you'll get better answers. I suggest you read that now, even if you don't think you need to. Eventually you will. Even I have to ask questions sometimes!
And one final hint: Use a descriptive thread title. I skip threads which contain "help" or "question" in the title. So do many other people. I just don't have time for it.
Total Comments 4
Comments
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I know I have done both before in the past, so I'm guilty as charged.
Good link. I want to read it in detail later, so I'm going to bookmark it here on my Windows desktop and again on the Linux one upstairs. Good informative blog post error10.
Posted 02-02-09 at 09:02 PM by Acreo Aeneas
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Posted 04-29-09 at 07:52 PM by Hueristic
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I agree with this, i wish people would stop being so ignorant about these matters and try and actually explain whats going on as well as learning what they h ave to do to fix it. You gotta learn sometime or another how to fix problems.Posted 04-30-09 at 08:26 AM by Karasu
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I agree with most of this, except for this one bit. It's possible it's a little ambiguous, but I'll go at it the way I interpreted it (ie. Person who suggests "semi-random" things becomes the "voodoo" believer).Quote:Part of the problem is that some people who are having problems don't give enough detail to determine what the problem is. I've lost count of the number of people whose posts basically amount to "It doesn't work" without sufficient detail to determine what doesn't work, let alone what the error is or what might be going wrong!
Now some people approach this by throwing out semi-random suggestions of "things to try" to fix the problem. Much of the time these things are completely useless, because the person "trying to help" has no idea what the problem is!
Of course sometimes they get lucky, and whatever bit of voodoo they suggested actually solves whatever problem it was, so they begin to believe in the power of voodoo, instead of the power of understanding what is actually going on inside one's computer.
My opinion is, if someone isn't specific enough, try suggestions that are related that could work.. while inquiring about more details on the problem.
Example: Someone posts saying they have a BSOD, reformat, and still have said BSOD and ask for help. My first thoughts would be to ask if they see a file name on this BSOD. If they claim it appears and quickly dissapears, I'd tell them to check for a setting in their bios to disable restarting on BSODs/errors.. or just take out a camera and snap a few pics when it appears.
In the same post I would also tell them to unplug all USB devices (sans mouse/keyboard) and see if they still get said BSOD. Lastly I would ask if they recently added more internal hardware to their machine (ie. DVD/bluray/HDD drive, beefier video card, etc.) and what size power supply they have. I've had BSODs in the past from too many components on too small of a PSU anyhow..
Anyway, I think you get my point. Not all random suggestions are worthless, and while I'd also say some help is better than no help.. There are a few off the wall suggestions you see on occasion. Things like "Have you tried putting your keyboard on your head?" or "Okay, go into your kitchen... Can you hear me now?.. Good!". Obvious exaggeration, but I'm basically referring to suggestions that make me think "..What does that have to do with the problem at all?".Posted 05-01-09 at 04:35 AM by timxirish
