Very good point! I've been in IT for about 15 years and I've met lots of bright self taught and formally trained programmers, analysts, network admins etc who I would not in a million years consider tech savvy because they were unable or unwilling to 'connect the dots'. Or they get that blank look when shown a piece of hardware or in the insides of the very computers they were working with for months, sometimes years. Yeah, you can be in the business and NOT be tech savvy (by my definition).
Then there are those who aren't in the computer business, but yet are tech savvy in that they are not only able to analyze / identify a problem, but are willing and able to troubleshoot it themselves using various resources, mostly online. And while they may not succeed for lack of experience or knowledge of a particular piece of hardware or software, they are still able to grasp the principles and articulate the issues to someone like myself who's job is now half as difficult. Not many can do that.
I would qualify that as simply having poor critical thinking skills. I work with a guy who I'd consider a pretty sharp guy. However, his critical thinking skills are piss poor. If someone gives me a problem, I spend time gathering lots of info about the problem, formulate a hypothesis, rule stuff out, then figure out how to test my hypothesis before I even talk to the user. He talks to the user and immediately starts throwing solutions at the wall to see what sticks.
The other day someone calls because they claim a certain web based app won't print to a certain printer. They say another person is having the exact same problem with the same printer. This once worked, but now doesn't. He has them print a test page. It doesn't work. Then he prints a web page. It does work. Then he prints a web page again. It doesn't work. Then he prints a page from the app, it works. He tells me all of this and tells me it makes no sense. I conclude that the printer is what the problem is since it's the common denominator and since we had issues with it previous where idiot users have unplugged it or jostled the network cable. His response is to call tech support for the web based app and start contacting tech support for the printer as well. He spent 3-4 hours on the problem and I have no clue what he ended up coming up with. No critical thinking skills at all.
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