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People who fear getting out of their comfort zone by learning how to accomplish many common skills prevent them from growing.
We see this with individuals who are complacent and stuck in the past.
While it's their prerogative not to join the 21st century, it can be frustrating for those around them, especially those who try to enlighten their peers by teaching them basic skills that can be helpful in the long run.
Curious to hear from strangers online, Redditor vpr0nluv asked:
"What's the simplest skill that you've seen someone refuse to learn?"
Many people feel intimidated by basic tech.
Knowledge Is Power
"General technology knowledge. Basic phone and computer tasks."
"I worked for a little while at a phone store and it always got under my skin how people refused to listen to even the simplest explanations on basic functions."
"I get it. It’s new and scary. But if you would only listen to this 3 step process, it will solve most of the problems you are bringing to me."
– MrRstar
Outdated Correspondence Methods
"Used to work with a director, who was only in his 50s, that refused to use a computer."
"Just outright refused."
"So he would handwrite letters, notes, thoughts etc. they ask his secretary to type everything up."
"So he'd get an e-mail, his secretary had to print it off, he would read it, hand write his response, get her to type it, then e-mail a response."
"He would literally get a print out of an e-mail of some updates and write, 'ok' on a piece of paper and get his secretary to write that response back."
"Dude just f'king write 'ok' and send it back yourself."
"Dude would also get his secretary to respond to some seriously private and confidential stuff that he definitely should not be sharing out, and yeah, obviously, his secretary told the rest of the team negative things that were going to affect us."
"Just mental."
– XOAN
Wasting Paper
"my CFO is like that, in his 60s, and a very bright, great man, but prints out everything. anything sent to him, shared with him on google drive, he prints out. he then will call the secretary and dictate replies. which she will send to him and he will forward via his email to whomever."
"its kind of funny to see. alas he is retiring next year. he cashed out his shares and winding down."
– Prof_G
Fear of the unknown is a detriment to personal growth.
Inability To Follow Directions
"I work in a phone shop now, it drives me up the WALL. I get at least one person every day who just bought a new phone and insists that they need me to 'set it up.' My dude, read the screen and press okay until it’s gone through the slideshow."
"It literally holds your hand and walks you through it. you do not need me and it’s not a part of my job. but oh they’re 'not tech savvy' so if something’s written on a screen instead of a piece of paper it’s suddenly french to them and they refuse to try."
– starfall_13
Staying Organized
"Along these lines, just basic File Management."
"Just creating an organized folder structure and naming procedure."
"It feels like it afflicts people on all sides of me. Older people who just put everything on the Desktop named like, 'nonsense name dot file format.'"
"Younger people like, 'idk it's in the cloud somewhere lemme look.'"
"It's just such a basic easy-to-do procedure that makes everyone's life easier. Follow a naming procedure and put things in organized folders on drives. Shouldn't be this difficult."
– CodyHodgsonAnon19
To Excel Or Not To Excel
"It always baffles me how many people who, essentially, spend their entire life using Excel refuse to spend any time actually learning how to use Excel."
– therealhairykrishna
Old School Boss
"I once discovered my boss was using a calculator to figure out the values to input in specific cells. Like putting 6358 in A1 and 562 in A2 then using a calculator to add the values together to input the total in A3. I tried to show him literally the simplest function =a1+a2 and he refused. Said he liked doing it by hand. He also refused to use tabs and made each month a new file and had to manually import the previous month's, year's, and YTD data.
95% of this guy's job was creating reports in excel for his boss. I could have done his entire job AND done it better (with more actionable info and trends) in about 10 minutes a day. He was paid obscenely more than me. His boss thought my boss was indispensable. I hated this man and his boss with a passion.
It's a wonder how these people can function in society.
Safety Hazard
"My late 50’s sister refuses to learn how to change a light bulb. You’d think it was 1890’s not 2020’s. She has a PhD ffs, in literature. She’s convinced it’s going to electrocute her."
"Like yeah sure - everybody who changes a light bulb gets electrocuted. smh She either calls a tradesperson to come do it if she can’t get anyone else to, or just goes out and buys a(nother) lamp."
– lookthepenguins
Constant Need Of Assistance
"Of course not everyone can and should be a super-Linux-programmer-commandline-wizard, but just basic stuff like you show someone a thousand times 'press this big red button that says ON to turn X on', then you ask them to do it and they even do it succesfully in front of your eyes and say OK."
"24h later they complain to you that they don't know how to turn X on and why is it so hard to turn X on please come and help... And of course I'm not talking about people with dissabilities or other issues, just 'normal' people."
– Rogurin
Out Of Character
"My dad was a telephone tech at AT&T for like 40 years. It was a very technical job, he used thick manuals to troubleshoot switchboards, and a Linux terminal. We had PCs before most other families, and there was a C++ book on our shelf as I was growing up. He's the reason I got into computer science."
"Now he flat out refuses to learn how to use a smartphone."
– ThatCakeIsDone
It's Not About Age
"This is basically my MIL. She phones up panicking regularly because you have to do so much on line and she refuses to get it - it's not like she's dumb and will regularly go on about how dumb everyone else is because they didn't go to Oxford or whatever (yeah, she's a proper snob about education) but she won't learn to do basic tasks with hours of coaching and help that most people learn to do on their own?"
"We try and put it down to an age thing but my FIL was fine with computers and phones as are my parents (all over 70yo), we're starting to think she just does it for attention."
– standupstrawberry
Now, Hear This
"Listening."
"It's surprising how many people just wait for the other person to stop talking. Also surprising how many others don't even wait that long."
– doublestitch
It Takes Two
"Conversation in general."
"Both parties need to listen, sure. But the talking party also needs to leave space for the listening party to reply. People just rambling on are not holding a conversation, they're holding a monologue. Leave some space every once in a while."
– theBirbsandtheBees
A Common Excuse
"I was showing my elderly neighbor how to cut and paste on her laptop and she was like, 'no, this is too complicated!'"
– DiscoLibra
I understand it's a comfort thing, sticking to whatever works for individuals who've been doing tasks a certain way for so long.
But the moment they decide not to expand their knowledge because "it's too hard," it's a slippery slope.
In the end, they wind up making things complicated for themselves when they realize they've been left behind and are constantly reliant on others to help them with whatever task is at hand, whether at home or in the workplace.
Always keep learning. It could help you remain sharp well into your twilight years.