On a scale of 0 to 10, how good are you at technology?
I used to think I was a 5/10, but then I tried to pirate a game on SteamDeck and I felt like I lost a lot of braincells. Spend like 6 hours trying to fix things and I accidentally bugged the internal speakers.
I think I'm at 3/10, linux (SteamOS) is so fucking hard to use.
I might be the most technologically illiterate Lemmy user ever.
Somewhere between 7 and 8, if 8 is knowing how to program in programming languages. I don't, but I can script pretty well and I am very techy.
I'd say probably about a 7. I'm good enough with technology to have been using Linux for the past few years without any major issue that wasn't caused by the distro I was using. I still wouldn't say that I'm great with it though, because there are still several things I don't know how to do and there are probably also a bunch of things that would be useful for me to know but I just haven't found them yet or even know that I need them in the first place.
Maybe 7.75? I've soldered internals, setup computer networks, built computers, do websites/graphics/videos/3D modeling/music. A little of everything.
Depends on if I care of not.
Phone: 3/10. I don't really care other than googling "how to turn off annoying feature".
Writing Software: 7/10. It's not beautiful, but it does one thing reasonably well and I finished it in an afternoon. Just don't ask me to write a GUI.
Writing Software for industrial machinery: I've done it for a living for more than a decade. Still rather skip the GUI part.
Are we rating ourselves against the general population? I'm an easy 9 if not 10/10.
Against people working in IT, or skilled enthusiasts? I've really slipped, maybe a 4 or 5 at best.
About a 7.
Been using Linux for years, have a fairly wide variety of knowledge to pull from, but I'm still not that great or anything.
It definitely feels like progress slows as we get better.
If you blindly run commands without thinking, you're gonna have a bad time in Linux.
SteamOS is also not hard to use, especially if you use it as intended, but if you start going outside the box on things, you can definitely break stuff. Nintendo switch would have the same problems if they let you touch the knobs that valve does with SteamOS
SteamOS is also not hard to use, especially if you use it as intended
(Isn't causally violating copyright regulations "as intended"? 👀)
8
I think I'm 6/10. I'd consider myself an advanced user. I'm capable enough to avoid casual problems, and instead create real serious problems.
I am skilled enough to understand that I don't know shit.
A solid 4, I think. Sure, I can build a PC and install an OS but both of those have been pretty much plug and play for decades at this point.
Don't ask me about your smartphone, your smart home devices or your Windows 10/11 problems, I don't have a clue about any of that. If you visited my home you'd be forgiven for thinking it was abandoned 20 years ago.
I can usually figure out basic tech I've never used before, but I'd prefer to have the manual, help or hindrance though that may be.
What's the scale? I'm proposing:
1 - able to turn on the device (not necessarily turn it off)
9 - can train and run own LLM (from scratch, not from an existing model)
10 - knows how to reliably set up a printer
10 - knows how to reliably set up a printer
What is this, D&D levels? Let’s keep this fantasy nonsense out of the rating scale!
Entirely dependent on the field of technology. On average, like a 6 or 7? But i do regularly find myself to be a dumbass who doesn't know shit about fuck.
If my brain worked on command that'd probably bump me up to an 8 or 9 though.
I am an IT technician, I would say that I am about a 7.
Most of my job deals with psychology.
I've been working with computers and building them my whole life. I am pretty good with windows. I regularly tell potential employers in interviews that I rate my skills with windows computers at about a 6/10. I can probably fix anything you broke, but I am terrified of editing hex code and other things that the IT wizards do with ease.
I can take apart most electronics and put them back together without breaking them which is not a skill that most people possess apparently. Back when I worked at geeksquad I became known as the "laptop keyboard repair guy" in the area. Other stores would literally send people to see me because apparently nobody else can take apart an hp laptop and remember where all of the 47 screws went or do it without ripping a ribbon cable. 🤷🏼♂️
5/10, i customize my linux desktop, i know how to setup a basic linux server, etc.
how the fuck do you "bug" the internal speakers while attempting to pirate a game? that's like saying you broke the sink while trying to change a light bulb.
They used the sink as a stepstool obviously
Dependency... magic. Currently I am having to wait for Firefox not loading websites due to a slower DVD drive I am uploading from to cloud in another tab.
Maybe some internal QoS thingy where it thinks the network connection is slow.
And recently I had issues with laptop taking a very long time to resume from sleep or turning screen back on due to iio-sensor-proxy, a program responsible for... at least determining physical screen orientation.
Idk, its actually a common problem according to SteamDeck users on reddit, so like its not just me. Must've accidentally messed with a setting.
EDIT: sorry, that was mean and uncalled for, but I'll leave it here for people to downvote if they want.
trying to fix things... bugged the internal speakers
sounds to me like the problem is located somewhere between the user and the trackpads.
Welcome to linux!
Please give references for the scale
Also Richard Stallman -- the man who wrote the original Emacs and GCC -- has never installed a GNU+Linux distro, and he has no idea/interest in it.
I mean im in IT and it really depends. Everythings a learning curve so things you have figured out usually goes well but since every tech has pretty much unlimited use cases you still can hit roadblocks. For things you have never done it takes time to learn how to do the common uses and then you can expand out to things that require more finesse (ideally, if the boss wants Z you make it do Z even if you never got it to do X)
So, not sure what details I may be missing, but my experience putting any non-steam game onto a steam deck is just transferring over the game folder and linking the executable in steam. No idea how one could mess up any other part of the system with that.
Yea I managed to run a GOG version of Stardew Valley just fine, but crack games like RE4 doesnt work.
Whatever score you give to youself, will be a demonstration of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
I think the opposite—seems like many of you on Lemmy don’t realize how bad the general population is with technology and are selling yourselves short. Even knowing what linux is puts you at a 6/10 imo, especially when compared to most folks (half of whom don’t know how gmail works).
Like the fact that we’re on Lemmy—a site that most americans probably couldn’t access if they tried—shows we’re all at least a 5/10 on the technology scale.
You’re completely right.
Can confirm: I rate myself a 7/10. I know a lot about a few things and a moderate amount about many more, but there’s always more to learn…
The tech field is so vast, most people can't even list the industries within tech, let alone being competent in just a small part of it.
There is not one single technology to be good or bad at. You can be an Android development ace, a Windows gamer and a Linux user all at the same time, and naturally you will struggle if you switch to Windows dev and Linux gamer.
Being tech savy really just means that you know and recognize tons of patterns that pop up everywhere (e.g. drag-n-drop, config files in certain places with overrides in other places etc.)
I do all of those, but I cannot build a modern website.
Wait, it's all JavaScript?
8/10 maybe more, maybe less. Software developer, don't really have issues with tech, but put me in front of a quantum computer and I sure as shit would be lost, but fine with consumer products.
Same just about.
Like I know some truely brilliant people. I'm just happy riding the coattails.
Between 0.4 and 0.6 but the best humans score between 1.2 and 1.8; we are all pretty shit at technology.
If you don’t believe me, ask technical lithography questions to software programmers and economic questions to plumbers.
We are swimming in a sea of technologies and don’t even know how deep the water around us is.
Fuck the technological complexity in a single screw is massive.
11 - I avoid it as much as I can ;)
More seriously, I will often be the one people around ask for help but it doesn't change that I also learned to absolutely distrust tech.
All tech, be it corporate-owned as well as free/Libre... I'm using Linux and have no issue (I like it) but I'm also terrified by the many 'social code of conducts' that have been popping out in many communities. Not necessarily because I disagree with their core values, that would not even matter much, but because it's stating a precedent to allow a group to remove any user they don't like/disagree with the right to use a tech... and that power will be used even when not 'the good guys' will be in charge.
Hence me slowly falling back to analog as much as possible...
Edit: typos, clarifications
I used to be really good. In the last 15 years or so the industry has insisted on making the interface would be worse and worse. NowI’m damn near helpless. I google more stuff than you can imagine. It’s fucking stupid. I don’t even enjoy most technology anymore.
Operating stuff with GUI? Maybe 5/10, just ok.
Operating stuff using command? 0/10 i suck.
Decimal or binary? I'd say a two.
Scale is always a problem with questions like this. If these are percentiles of the general population, then I'm easily 10 and even trying to dig deep enough into Linux to break a Steam Deck puts you near the upper end of the scale.
If on the other hand, 0 is an otherwise intelligent adult who refuses to have anything to do with anything having a screen and 10 is Lovelace, Turing, von Neumann, etc... then I might be a 7 or 8.
My thing is C++ and Z80/45GS02 assembly, and I love a good terminal, so wherever that puts me I guess
My technology skill makes me satisfied that your scale starts at zero, but annoyed it didn't end with nine.
Compared to people who work on cryptography and AI magic? Like 2/10. Compared to Boomers? 9/10.
The number of computer scientists I've known that couldn't set up a VPN, or alter a firewall rule, or change the layout on a web page slightly, or set their out of office replies...
Basically the experience I've had is that those people you imagine are gods of tech are frequently terrible at tech beyond their very narrow niche.
But boomers, yeah. Even my mom who was a programmer and mostly stayed current on tech. But when Facebook stopped using a chronological news feed, she couldn't handle it.
I have an English Master's and my wife has a PhD in Comp Sci. Guess who sets up all the techie stuff. That'll be meeeee.
PS fuck Facebook's feed. I found out about a friend's death 2 weeks after she died (her parents couldn't get at her address book so they posted with her account on Facebook instead). I had to tell her other friends because NOBODY had seen the post.
It all depends on the day lol.
Learning drive 5. Using once learned 8
I "hacked" my wii to get free games one time does that count? other than that I can operate most devices but I have no idea how to code and don't have time to learn. I'd put myself at a 6/10.
Like a 7 or 8 maybe?
What's a 10?
Terry Davis.
Depends on how you are using your scale.
My existing knowledge is better than average. I've spent the last 2 years learning to put together some hardware (NAS/server, custom keyboard from scratch, hitbox videogame controller) and using more software (Linux basics, Docker and server basics, emulators, etc). I'm still probably way behind the tech professionals who are on Lemmy, but I would say my willingness to learn and try is very very high and that's more than enough for an enthusiast and hobbyist.
Also worth considering benchmarking against the general population rather than Lemmy's tech community. The general public mostly hasn't even heard of the Steam Deck or Linux, and certainly can't manage anything beyond pressing the install button in an app store. Compared the the general public, my wife thinks I'm a literal wizard for having an email address with my own domain and being able to access a remote desktop.
Hard to put this on an absolute scale with no frame of reference, but maybe like 7-8? I've got a CS degree and I run Linux at home. I know enough to know how much I don't know, but I know how to Google the things I don't know and figure it out. Which is the skill that really matters, right?
i3. I know how to confidently issue commands to search and then confidently type it in my computer.
yup, the 'i' means imaginary.
I can pirate games, movies and books, can use SciHub to download articles behind paywalls, and have installed ReVanced on my phone. 🤷
6-7. I’ll consider 5 the average user, since there’s no ranking criteria given.
I am a 10/10. With tech you know it or you don’t.
Once you know it, the shit is routine… If you don’t know it, it is impossible.
Also 9.999/10 whatever issue you are having with that tech is some other process that is shitting the bed.
Linux piracy can honestly be a pain in the ass. I wouldn't beat yourself up too much over it if it wasn't working properly.
There's someone called "johncena" then some numbers who supposedly uploads some kind of Linux-ready release of games.
I'm a Linux pirate so I've been going through the trials and tribulations to get games to work. For the best results, I typical need to install the game in a Windows VM then copy it over to my main OS. It's a hassle and takes up a lot of storage in the process, but it's nice when it works.
It sucks when it doesn't work and can feel like a waste of time. That's something I've just gotten used to with computers.