002 - Tech Support Till The Day I Die

I think about this image a lot. I'm very blessed to be technically minded and blessed to have been born just as the internet was beginning to bloom. I love to bug my younger cousins about back in my day.. "We had to eat without YouTube" or "The only WiFi we had was at your local McDonald's." From cassettes to CDs to iPods to streaming, for example, I got to live it all (and a few viruses from Limewire as well). The best part is we're still going! I mean look! It's 2025, we're quite literally in the future! Man, if I could go back in time and tell 10-year-old me how far we've come he'd probably think I'm bat-shit crazy so I won't do that.. But! As I do remember, I always did have myself asking what's next, what's new? Little did I know that it would be my business (unwillingly) to know what's next and what's new. Technology is a double-edged sword that many of us take for granted. And for me, as of late, all that ever comes to mind is should we keep improving upon this technology? Do we actually need this? I know my answers, do you?

As with the advancement of technology and the solutions it creates it also brings along its own set of problems. I love problems. "I don't want peace, I want problems ALWAYS". Except when it's someone else's problem.. like dude please don't drag me into this.. please please please I don't careee.. but I do care and that's what kills me, I actually do care about people. So, if you didn't guess by now I'm always the one they call when something needs fixing. Phone needs a software update? Ok. Your laptop needs a storage upgrade? Sure. Camera lens stuck? Got you. Internet down? Let me see. TV has no sound? *hits mute* Set up 2FA? done. Need a website?! Your refrigerators not working?! The car stereo broke?! Shitttt, you need your taxes done?? smh smh (that ones for a later blog post). Don't get me wrong, I LIVE FOR THIS. I love finding solutions to problems. It keeps me on my toes. I love troubleshooting and learning along the way. But just know I'll just be complaining the whole time.

So I guess the point I want to get to is this.. (if you're reading this, I don't think you expected there to be a point huh?). Let's try to make the most of what we have. The internet is a great resource to learn about quite literally anything and that's the problem that 10-year-old me couldn't foresee. Like yes, I could learn Python but I'll probably end up watching "Top 10 Demons All-Time (NOT CLICKBAIT)". I coulddd learn to repair a car engine but I'll probably binge-watch *insert favorite Netflix show here*. I do enjoy being of service, like the great Muhammad Ali said "Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth" but I don't like being expected to help like it's my obligation. For example, what do you mean you don't know what YOUR username and password are!?!?!

I think we all need to learn to be a little more self-reliant. If you don't know how to set up an ad-blocker on a Raspberry Pi for your home network, I understand, that's kind of niche. But you should at least know how to change the inputs on your TV right? how to open a PDF? Change your passwords? We're so used to getting everything quickly, on demand, that when we meet a little bit of resistance we drop it and move on. Learn to struggle and feel uncomfortable once in a while. There's no shame in failing as long as we learn along the way and you should learn or people will make a fool of you. And remember there's no problem with asking for help (after exhausting all of your other options). Because honestly, it's not easy being devilishly handsome and smart and free tech support for life but someones gotta do it.