Gadget Fan A.k.a Ubiquitous Tech Support
I am a fan of gadgets. Be it an Apple Watch, iPad with Apple Pencil or Oura ring, I have tried them all. My obsession with gadgets dates almost two decades. Long back, I have tried all the bulky digital cameras and clunky MP3 players.
I wish my family sees me as a uber-cool geek that can compete with Linus Torvalds. But they see me as a tech support person. I used to fix problems in assembled computers, TV sets, radio and cassette players. I graduated to fixing problems with phones, digital cameras and routers. Now my expertise is in configuring the mobile phones, weeding out the WhatsApp forwards and saving the phone memory, uninstalling junk apps.
But I love these tasks. I never sulk at it. My younger brother is an ultra-nerd-gadget geek. I used to outsource these tasks to him in my family, but sometimes my presence is needed when he is away.
I now have graduated to explaining intricacies of WhatsApp or Google Pay to elders and non-geeks. Last weekend, I was visiting my grandma and my uncle. I was helping my uncle to share his location using WhatsApp. His eyes were filled with joy and awe, when he came to know that he can send voice messages in a very simple way in WhatsApp. He was so curious about “Status” and explored this. I really felt so happy at this. It is like being the ambassador of technology to mere mortals.
Today I commuted from office to home in an auto-rickshaw (or tuk-tuk, as they say in Thailand). I didn’t have any change or cash to pay the auto-driver. The driver surprised me and asked to transfer via Google Pay. I was so delighted. He had some trouble in accessing his UPI code and sharing it others. I was so happy take time and explain it to him.
We all build products and cram it with so many features. You may be a developer, devops person, UI designer, engineering manager or a scrum master. If you were to talk to regular people and see the friction in discovering those features or how they use, it is extremely illuminating and enlightening.