Problem solving

[thisisthehabit]

• User calls. "How do I make a PDF smaller to email it" ?
• Me: [talks user through PDF optimiser]
• User: it still doesn't work, it comes back to me.
• Me: Odd. Did you have a look at the file size?

Comments

[wolflullaby]

I know exactly what you mean. I get that so often

[thisisthehabit]

Yep, that's the usual sort of issue. "Is it on?" and so on.

What struck me about this one was that the person had tried to solve the problem. They just hadn't done it any any sort of organized, methodical way. They stabbed blindly for what might've been the answer, and called for help with something that was three or four steps down a dead end they shouldn't have been exploring in the first place. The amount of work they must regularly waste on unnecessary tasks amazes me.