Knowing your Stuff

People coming to a tech god or goddess are coming because they think you know more than they do.

But one thing is certain; no one person can track the amount of technical change that occurs on everything technical all of the time. If someone comes go me and asks a question that I don't know the answer to, I'm the first to say that I don't know. Why? Because I don't want them to think that I know everything either. It puts the asker and the tech person on equal footing and it helps relate to each other.

However, a tech person must know where to find out things they need to know. Not just Google either, which can be an excellent tool. Manuals, drivers, troubleshooting pages online, tools on CDs which run tests that can identify problems; all of these things can help you identify if it is a bad fan making that noise or something worse.

If someone asks for my opinion on something like a camera or a computer, chances are good that I've never heard or it or don't know how it is different from any other thing out there. But what do I do? I look at the reviews. I examine the specifications. I compare what I DO know to this new product. And then I give my opinion.

So, it's not what you know, but instead what you CAN know.