Ham N Egz
TL;DR
 
try being a telephone help desk support person..
 
I was for a nationwide finance/mortgage company where our users varied with regards to their technical skillets.
 
Sometimes took 30 minutes to determine the actual issue. I am glad I no longer do that job

In the 90's, I did support for a finance/mortgage company too. Yes, the tech knowledge of the users was all over the board.
 
One comes to mind of a new secretary that called saying her mouse wasn't working. After a few minutes it became obvious that the mouse was on the floor and she was trying to operate it like a dictaphone foot switch.

What do you do when someone refuses to RTFM?

 
take it way and give it to an underprivileged user?

That mouse story reminds me of when I was in tech support (for a healthcare utilization review company - I led a small team there).  We had one nurse call and say her mouse was dead.  I mentioned that it might not be plugged in securely or maybe a driver wasn't being run, but she replied that she was pretty sure that it was dead.  So, bringing a replacement with me, I went to her office and, sure enough, the mouse was dead.  Someone had swapped out her PC mouse for a "real" (albeit dead) mouse.  Having a good sense of humor, she played along and we all had a good laugh.  Naturally, I disposed of the dead body by slipping it into the lunch bag of the guy we knew played the joke on her.  It seemed like the right thing to do, ya? 

I loved it when a user called and said his cruiser wouldn't move no matter what he did with his mouse.
 

It's actually harder than people think to describe computing concepts to a complete newbie. So much of what you take for granted is alien to them. Ever tried explaining what files and directories actually are to someone who has zero experience with computers? 
 
I remember not 10 years ago mentioning to my mother that I'd bought a new computer, and she couldn't wrap her head around the fact that I didn't have a printer. She said "what's the use of having a computer if you don't have a printer to print out your work?" The concept of things having value just on the screen was completely new to her, her only previous computer experience being years ago in an office where computing always resulted in something coming out of the dot matrix printers on that stripey paper with the holes in it. I couldn't get her to understand at all. 

I miss creating 3D worlds that you can virtually enter and explore...  I'll have to get back to that someday.

If only I had known all this earlier.

Jesse Screed
If only I had known all this earlier.

A case for reading the FSF in its entirety BEFORE posting there.

bapu

Jesse Screed
If only I had known all this earlier.

A case for reading the FSF in its entirety BEFORE posting there.

 See, that's what I don't understand.
 
Jesse Q. Screed

Jesse Screed

bapu

Jesse Screed
If only I had known all this earlier.

A case for reading the FSF in its entirety BEFORE posting there.

See, that's what I don't understand.
 
Jesse Q. Screed

Typical