Have you ever encountered people who expect you to know things you couldn't possibly know?
A good example of this is today my daughter filled out an application on a computer that was at the business she was trying to hire in to.
She had to set up a password. Instructions said, “Password must contain at least 6 letters, numbers or special characters.” She tried and tried and couldn’t get the password set up. She asked for help and the gal said, “Well, you need at least one of each!” That’s not how the instructions read.
Next thing she needed to get a security code. To get it she was instructed to “type out these two words with a space between them.” Again, no luck. Asked for help. Again the lady said, “Well, you’re not supposed to put a space between the words!”
Both times it was said in a tone that suggested my daughter should have known that.
I’m thinking they have to be asked these same questions over and over, so why in the hell don’t they correct the instructions or put a piece of paper up clarifying? I hope that’s not how the whole business is run.
It’s happened to me before. I can’t think of a time right off the bat, but have any of you ever encountered that?
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
5 Answers
Yes. My husband will start talking about things – usually scientific or mechanical things – about which I am clueless. When I give him a confused look, he seems amazed that I don’t know what he’s talking about. I once said to him, “What in my educational background makes you think that I should know any of that?” Since then, he asks if I know about X or Y. It’s nice because once he gives me some basics, I can usually follow him.
One nice comment he made when I admitted my ignorance about some subject, “But you’re so smart! I thought you knew this.”
Both my kids when they ask for my help with their homework.
Yeah, this fascinates me. I think it’s really a failure of theory of mind (ToM), the ability to understand that other people don’t know what you know, and can have different mind states than you do. Someone with a well-developed ToM will be pretty good at guessing what someone else may or may not know, and will then be able to understand how best to supply the information necessary to get them up to speed.
Some folks are amazingly bad at this. They say it’s a common deficit for people on the autism spectrum, which might explain why “aspie” types are often terrible at explaining things (engineers who design consumer products should never be allowed to write the instruction manuals for consumers). But plenty of people who aren’t “on the spectrum” just can’t seem to get out of their own head and into someone else’s.
I do this to people all the time.
@thorninmud Correct. But part of it’s expecting people to know the skills they need to do their damn job too, so I do that a lot; possibly more than other Aspies.
CONSTANTLY!
I have an auction house and they constantly walk up and say things like “Do you know where that blue thing is?” No. NO NO I do NOT.
Answer this question 
Composing members:
0
