Suckerfish on the Side of Your Whale

As Simon mentioned a couple posts ago, the fact that some people just will not read what's in front of them is a constant source of wonder and frustration for us. People will say "oh, I'm not good on the computer", but in these cases, it's not a computer skill issue, it's a please-just-look-at-your-screen issue.

Example:

"Alright, now click 'Finish'."
"OK, I've done that."
"Now, in this window, you'll see a new icon that says MyNewConnection."
"Ummmm..."
Time passes as I wait patiently.
"No, I don't have that here."
"OK, read to me what you see in front of you."
"I see Make New Connection, MyOldConnection, and MyNewConnection."
"... right, so you'll need to right click on MyNewConnection."

I mean, that person found the icon when I asked her to read everything (which, you'll note, was only three things), but couldn't find it when I identified it by name. Why is that?

Example:

"Now we'll need you to find the icon that says 'Modems' and doubleclick on it."
"I don't have that."
"It will be in this window, you'll just want to keep looking for a moment."
"Nope, it's not here."
"OK, what's the first thing in this window?"
"It says 'Accessibility Options'."
"And you see how everything is organized alphabetically?"
"Yes."
"So let's have you look a bit further down so that you're looking at things starting with M."
"OK."
"What do you see starting with M?"
"I see Modems, Mouse, Multimedia."
"Right. So doubleclick on Modems."
"Oh, I see. It wasn't there before."

Yes, that's right, it's a well known Windows issue in which the Control Panel spontaneously adds the icon you were looking for right as the technician is giving you extremely simple and detailed instructions on how to get there... I believe it's called the PEBKAC error.