Hacker News Reader

Comment by Aeglaecia | Hacker News Reader

personally love it when family asks me for help with computers as its piss easy work that does them a huge favor, you and the author share a perspective that i dont

View on HN

You liked being called out of your room ten times a day for some bullshit you've already explained a million times? Being asked to type something because you type faster?

Thief is the perfect word. Instead of using their own brains they stole mine. I don't know how someone does this and isn't ashamed of themselves. I'm so glad I don't have to live the life of a helper monkey for the terminally lazy anymore. Magically they managed to survive on their own once I moved out. Go figure.

This is way too common with some people as they get older. They refuse to learn how to use a computer, a phone, or they even refuse to read utility bills or bank statements and ask others to summarise them for them. On the other hand they don't have a problem learning what all the buttons do in their new fancy car.

I say fuck that.

In the same way that your family has a different capacity for using the computer, other people have a different capacity to field interruptions or to spare their attention. Something that may be pleasant for you might be really taxing for someone else. That doesn't invalidate either experience.

In disability advocacy this is sometimes called spoon theory. This is somewhat offtopic but one of my favorite sci-fi short stories is about this concept.

https://www.beneath-ceaseless-skies.com/stories/carnival-nin...

"Carnival Nine," Caroline Yoachim. (It seems like if you press the button with arrows pointing in cardinal directions, it gets a lot easier to read.)

I personally had no shortage of ability to do the thing and continue working on my own stuff all day at that age; what made me angry was feeling that my time was needlessly wasted by people who were merely lazy and could figure these very simple things out on their own if they actually tried instead of using me as an escape hatch at the first inkling of uncertainty.

Fair enough, sorry if I was presumptive.

hahahaha

Extremely rude.

overly polite :)

full support to sharing sf short stories !!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com