Dallas friend Floyd Phelps sent me the following anecdote from the canyon we used to call the Generation Gap:
I was having trouble with my computer. So I called Richard, the 11-year-old across the street, whose bedroom looks like Mission Control and asked him to come over.
Richard clicked a couple of buttons and solved the problem. As he was walking away, I called after him, “So, what was wrong?�
He replied, ‘It was an ‘ID ten T’ error.â€�
I didn’t want to appear stupid, but asked, ‘An ‘ID ten T’ error? What’s that? In case I need to fix it again.â€�
Richard grinned. “Haven’t you ever heard of an ‘ID ten T’ error before?”
�No,� I replied.
â€�Write it down,â€� he said. “I think you’ll figure it out.â€�
So I wrote down:      “I D 1 0 T�
I used to like the little shit.
The kid’s a member of the Pen Fifteen club.
God. My former boss at the School of Business used to say that ALL the time. Drove me up a wall. Just reading that kind of made me twitch.
There are so many better ways to be condescending to the technologically less-able. 🙂
I take comfort in knowing my ignorance protects me from such insults. Dustin, what on earth were doing in the School of Business, working for the dark side?
They paid really well.
As a student I was making $23/hr doing technical support.
As a senior non-profit copywriter, I’m making $10/hr.
There’s a lesson here. About Dark vs Light.
I think it has to do with…Darth Vader is more bad ass, because he could afford more than a silly, brown bathrobe. Hmm.
I don’t make $23/hr teaching. I sure don’t make it writing.
Exactly.
The Dark Side.
It’s pretty compelling. I had much cooler outfits, that’s for sure. And I’m sure I hated my job and my life enough to want to blow up entire planets sometimes too.