If I ever became half as frustrated working with problem horses as I do with computers, I would hate my job. As it is, I love it, and I know that even when a problem seems insurmountable, if I think creatively about it, and keep calm, I’m likely to come up with the solution. I like to evaluate the situation according to the criteria:
- is the problem getting better?
- is it getting worse?
- is it staying the same?
In fairness, it’s very rare that problems get worse, or even stay the same, but occasionally the rate of progress can be slower than desired. Then we know that something else might be at play. We have so many tools and techniques and approaches at our disposal, that we are rarely scratching our heads for very long. People often comment on our patience. It’s easy to be patient when you’re confident you will succeed, however. Those same people wouldn’t think we were patient if they heard us swearing at some piece of software that just isn’t doing what it’s meant to!
With computers, and the wonderful world of the internet, we are far from expert. We can cope fine if everything is sufficiently straight-forward, one might even say idiot-proof, but if it isn’t working we have to resort to desperate tactics. My stock approach is to keep doing the same thing and hope that it will eventually work. (This would sound completely insane, but it does occasionally work out that way). At least we don’t have unsolicited help from random strangers, like people often do at shows when they can’t load their horses. Mostly we just flounder, until we finally ask for some help from our amazing IT friends. Usually, it’s a few swipes of the keys and the whole thing is sorted, without even resorting to turning the machine off and on again.
If we were sensible, perhaps we would train ourselves properly in the relevant aspects of IT. But our occasional frustrations are good for us. They remind us of the predicament of many of the people who come to us for help: they simply don’t have the same tools we do, and if they did, they could do the same things. It’s what our IT friends say to us. I’m only grateful that our clients are so much easier to teach than we are, and are usually enlightened enough not to blame the horse!