My wife and I met some of our old co-workers for lunch recently and one guy, after seeing my electronic gizmos (Palm Vx, collapsible keyboard, Omnisky modem) and hearing about my web sites and online contract work, marvelled at my technological prowess and bemoaned his cluelessness. This from a guy who knows how to build a house and the furniture in it from scratch.
There are levels of confidence, creativity and problem-solving ability that comes with most any acquired skill. I have some of that with computers, though I’m really not a geek by any stretch. I’ve installed CGI scripts on the Real Joe server, know how to set the permissions on a file or directory (chmod, baby!), and know enough to not have my eyes immediately glaze over when my true techie pals get to jabbering. For most household computer technology problems, I can sit down and usually figure things out… and in most cases, enjoy the challenge of it.
My wife used to marvel at my knack with everyday-type computer problems until I pointed out to her that I felt the same way about her cooking. She can work magic in the kitchen — that knack of being able to look in the fridge and take a bunch of leftovers from the past week and figure out something on the fly to turn it into a fantastic soup or stir fry, adding spices here and there, complementing it with a side dish of this or that, and pretty soon I’m in gastronomic heaven. She initially dismissed this as no big deal but it’s just as much magic to me as my computer jockeying is to her. One of my sons has her knack with food, and with musical instruments, too. I’m as pleased to see it as I am in awe of it. (Continued….)
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