@TechConnectify

Hell, yeah.

I feel like curiosity and an interest in seemingly unrelated domains ends up being surprisingly handy in life.

@TechConnectify As a career-long cause whisperer, I agree that we don’t know how to teach this and we still should.

Depending on the audience platform, a post like this might get replies like “what’s a scissor lift?” And that’s the level of troubleshooting many people are willing to apply (read: not even bothering to search for a term they don’t understand).

I hope we can figure out how to solve *that* one too.

@TechConnectify I wonder the same, but I've started to feel like it's a composite skill. You need to learn things like puzzle solving and maybe enjoying puzzles, learning how to break down a problem into its parts, as generic things. Some of these can be instilled early-on, and some more direct. I think largely though just giving people problems and the like that involve critical thinking skills of any topic are a start, and building that sense of "I can do".

Either that or it's as simple as "more parents need to buy Legos for their kids".

@TechConnectify my work colleagues: "it's broken, let's change ten things, try something (that may not be the same as the action that triggered the issue), then when it causes a different issue, change ten more things without putting anything back. Repeat."...

/me screaming: "please, for the love... before you change ANYTHING, figure out what you did to reproduce the issue".

@TechConnectify I think troubleshooting is a subset of deductive reasoning, and that is useful in many different contexts. I agree it's one of the most practical applications, so it might as well be the 101 course.

And later we get to "discerning what you know from what you assume". Other topics: stating a problem clearly enough for someone else (or yourself) to understand it. Distinguishing correlation from causation etc.

About troubleshooting, always remember: sometimes trouble shoots back.

@TechConnectify years ago (eh late 1990’s) I worked for a Sun reseller and as part of getting certified for Sun’s bigger servers I had to take a series of Sun trainings including a week long course on troubleshooting. It was really excellent - covered a lot of pretty universal techniques (along with some specific to Sun - like how to get root if you have physical access)

For the final day/test we had a room of machines to troubleshoot. One was “sticky tape on a connector”

Another “OS rooted”

@TechConnectify having taught electrical installation and fault finding..... I find that in some ways there's an innate ability in some people. Others who can just about grasp it and others that can't make the connections.

I don't know if that's because there's nothing being taught at primary school level now or not.

Even trying to teach the basics of
ID problem
Formulate solution
Test solution
???
Profit/repeat

Didn't really help.

@TechConnectify Incentive is often a driver. "Here's a job to do, I've got stuff to do so you're in charge. Get it done in 4 hours and there's a bonus in it for you. And here's the tool you'll need."
"But this tool is broken!"
"4 hours or no bonus! Better figure it out fast!"

Replace "bonus" with "grade" in a classroom setting.

The sense of accomplishment people get from figuring it out on their own can be even better than the original incentive.

Technology, IMO it can only be taught by example. By starting with something that doesn't work and showing the thought process, or guiding you through it. Watching videos of people troubleshooting and fixing things should also help.

It may also be taught as part of computer science classes because it's exactly the same skill as debugging software, just applied IRL.

@TechConnectify I have two primary thoughts.

1) I think the way that apple in particular, but a lot of modern pieces of technology in general, tell end users "if you try to fix this yourself, you'll void the warranty" has scared a lot of people off from trying to learn how to troubleshoot or fix things themselves.

2) In my professional experience, I often find that people don't have the time or incentives to play around with settings any more. Whenever possible, I like to play around with all the possible settings in a new tool, application, etc. just to see what happens, and I think the freedom to play around with settings is linked to the confidence to try troubleshooting.

@TechConnectify
Completely agree. Troubleshooting is applied critical thinking. Having a general understanding of how something might work, being able to decompose a problem, being able to devise tests to divide and conquer.. all these are things that need to be learned one way or the other. Usually haphazard and not systematic.

I see this as a bigger problem in education. Specifically, we don't put much emphasis on teaching how to think about thinking.

@TechConnectify I think there's a cultural component to it as well. The object is conceived within a cultural mindset, serving a particular purpose. I say cultural, because itches are defined by it, and how we scratch them is informed by that framework.

I wrote this a while back, and I think it's relevant here. https://jim.casablog.com/2019/04/15/technology-culture-and-knowledge-ownership/

...we consider how to design technology exported for use outside of whatever culture. It would also be important to consider the hidden biases and assumptions baked into a product whether it be software or a jet aircraft or software on a jet aircraft. No matter how much we try, exported invention and knowledge will always contain unexpected challenges to those that use it outside of its native context.

And honestly, that's an essential part of troubleshooting. It's the same challenge as "cultural competency." It doesn't mean you know everything about the culture, but rather that address your assumptions.