I was just on the phone with tech support for my wireless Internet service.

I turned on my receiver and router -- no Internet. On the phone with her, she had me "cycle power" which means turn it off then on again. Guess what? I just did that when I woke up today.

Anyhow, it started working.

Then she tells me that when they have us cycle power, they want us to physically unplug the receiver, not just turn off a surge protector that it's plugged into.

This lady was American, but she ended every sentence with a question mark.

When we do troubleshooting?
We have certain procedures?

When I found myself about to argue that an appliance plugged into an "off" surge protector is the same as an unplugged appliance, I cut the conversation off.

I suppose with the American public school system, I should prepare myself for more and more of this as I get older.

Yeah, and it's scary to think that the same is true of DOCTORS and such, as well!

People today seem to know how to do one thing: regurgitate whatever they have been taught. So whatever that is, that's what you'll get. And that's about ALL you'll get, because learning to just repeat what you're told is the exact opposite skill as learning to think. Which is just one of the many, many reasons that people these days are getting increasingly dumber and dumber.

 

Welcome to the new age. If you don't know it, and you can't do it yourself, you may have to just do without.