Author: ArtsyChowRoamer

Facts About Yak Shaving

AND TECH STUFF

The first day of a recent visit to my sister’s went something like this; get up and try to get my phone on wifi. “What’s the password” I ask? “tee something something” she answers. Nope…not it. 😬 Capital T? “Maybe” she says. Nope. “No capital… I’m pretty sure” she says. After several more attempts it finally takes it. Why does tech have to be a yak shaving event? We take a look at it within this post.

Now on to the tablet. Same thing. Back and forth with error messages that it isn’t the correct password yet it has allowed me to use that password on the phone. We finally give up trying and call tech support at Time Warner (I know….right? Who has them for wifi?) Tech support is a relative term.

Turns out all the tech can do is what we have already done or reset the modem which my sister says no way-too much trouble. I ask the tech why she can’t tell me how to forget the network and put it back in like you do on the phone. Well, she doesn’t know how to do that. I mean really? Shouldn’t you kinda need to know at least that much to help somebody get on the network?

Meanwhile my brother-in-law who just wanted his breakfast, knowing nothing about tech and refusing to let it rule his life decided to weigh in on the current drama by giving me a hard time.

As usual, I give it back by saying “I don’t want it to rule my life it just simply seems to be the case that you can’t do anything anymore without a computer and wifi. I don’t make the rules I am just forced to follow them and it ain’t ever easy!” (So there Mr. Man! Take that snappy retort!)

JUST SHOOT ME NOW

Even the most simple chat for help turns into an hours long conversations because of all the geek speak and wonky questions.

What device are you working on, what operating system you’re using, which version of the system are you on, how long has this been going on, were you ever able to do said thing you are asking about, have you downloaded any new programs or apps recently (really? REALLY?).

Then you must go through ALL the usual troubleshooting steps; even the stupid ones you already know about and have tried before you even reached out to tech support. Like did you unplug it from the wall and plug it back in? Did you turn it off and back on? Did you change your browser? Did you try it in another browser?

Don’t even get me started on why “Dennis, Sandy or David” have very thick accents where it appears English is not their first language (not that there is anything wrong with that!) It’s just that trying to understand directions on tech while trying to understand their English at the same time is simply….trying!

YAK SHAVING AND SETH GODIN

I recently was introduced to Seth Godin by way of an NPR interview. I admit I had never heard of him before and I’m not sure why.

He apparently is a big book seller on Amazon. He does these amazing classes on marketing and how to be and do what you want without following the maddening crowd and always thinking in numbers.

Numbers meaning how many people you are reaching, how many you are following and how many are following you. This becomes near obsessive if you let it on social media.

Seth says it is something you shouldn’t be concerned with; that you should just do your thing and find your voice. “If you have ten people that find what you are doing interesting and valuable they will pass it along and/or pay for it and that is a lot stronger than 1,000 faceless people following you, liking you but not passing you on to others”.

Seth is also where I first heard the term yak shaving which admittedly I had no idea what it was or why it might be important.

The term was coined a while back by coding geeks and wonks. It really just means that sometimes the big problem you are trying to solve requires an annoying number of smaller tasks to be resolved first.

WHY EVERYDAY LIFE IS HARD

If you think about that for a minute….isn’t that why everyday life is not easy and all things tech are so difficult? For example:

You want to cook Thanksgiving dinner but you gotta have a turkey. You realize that you loaned your turkey roaster to your sister and she hasn’t given it back. So you figure you either got to get in the car and go to her house and get it or to the grocery store for another one and pick up the turkey while you are at it.

You get in the car and see you have no gas. So you know you have to go to the gas station. Then you realize you gave your gas card to your husband to use yesterday and he didn’t give it back to you…..and there you go. I could go on but you get the drift.

READING SETH

If you haven’t read Seth Godin-you ought to. According to him and I know this is me; “people are on a journey to search for a sustainable model for creating significant value that allows you to earn a living while doing it”.

He continues with such sage advice as “…when you earn the trust of the smallest viable market and give them something they need, they will pay for it..”.

He also relates, “If you are seeking to build awareness, consider building a community instead”. “All businesses are either doing something profitable, difficult or important”…..what about you and me? Well for me-I’m doing something difficult right now. And that my friends means yak shaving ……..just plain old yak shaving.

CONCLUSION

Frustrated? Overwhelmed? Wondering if you got this? Me too along with a lot of other people so don’t sweat it! You aren’t alone and every day brings more and more tech into our lives creating more stress than it ever really should have.

It shouldn’t be this hard but that is why yak shaving as a term was invented-because even the geeks realized that you were going to have to shave a whole butt load of yaks when doing any kind of tech. They know it’s hard.

That’s why they knew we would need them and that they could make a whole lotta money because of it too. In fact, being a conspiracy theorist sometimes I ask myself….maybe they made it this hard on purpose? I mean right? Wouldn’t you do the same thing if you were profit based and greedy?

Course ya would (not)! But don’t get me started down that rabbit hole. That’s for another day. Suffice it to say tech is a constantly evolving thing that they purposely want us to have to stay updated on and with. Everything is being moved onto it and everything is meant to be a yak shaving event.

That’s why WWIII will involve tech-mark my words. You heard it here first folks. But that’s when the boomers will shine because we know how to do stuff before tech arrived. We know how to draw, how to make stuff, get stuff to places, talk to actual people-take that millennials et al.

If you liked what you read, you might also enjoy more blogs under Just Because. Hey, don’t be a stranger! Let me know what really frustrates you in your day to day life. Any tips and hints would be greatly appreciated as well. Until next time…

Cheers,

ArtsyChowRoamer

Follow me on You Tube, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and Twitter

TO MY READERS: This post was updated with upgraded content on 5/13/2020