The Fickle Finger
The problem with 'foolproof' is that they go and invent a bigger fool. Hi. That's me.
I may have spoken about this before, but I do believe in technomancy. And technomages. People for whom technology just... seems to roll over and beg. I married one of those people. I am, alas, not one of those people.
Technology I touch seems to want to make my life difficult. And that's not just the high expectations I hold for the future I'm living in. I'll leave the planned obsolescence/enshittification rant for another week. You probably know the chorus by now.
What I have is a unique gift to follow the instructions and have the machine either (a) fail, (b) crash, or (3) die. Sometimes, it's me misunderstanding the instructions. Sometimes, it's not that.
The most irritating thing about it all is that the instant my technomage is in the room, the instructions work and the machine just shows its metaphorical belly.
I do exactly what I've done before, but the presence of Beloved looking over my shoulder makes those instructions work. At least the task gets done.
Lately, I've been attempting to switch to Linux. My chosen OS is the Baby's Easiest To Use model - Mint Cinnamon. And Beloved thought I was smart enough to follow the instructions to install it without any hand-holding. Easy, right? Just hand me a link to a set of foolproof instructions and all will be well.
The problem with 'foolproof' is that they go and invent a bigger fool.
Hi.
That's me.
I dutifully followed the instructions as I encountered them. And then I encountered an instruction to verify the download before I got to the download link.
When I detailed how I got there, by our text chat program, she only had one word to say about it. "Jeebus".
I'm sorry, my love. The foolproof instructions had no idea that this fool was trying to follow them.
That was eventually surpassed. Yay.
Now the problem is program transfer. Adorable found this easy. I followed her instructions and... what works easily for her does not work for me. Sigh.
Maybe sometime soon, I'll have either her or Beloved looking over my shoulder to make the whole thing behave itself. Meanwhile I just... deal.