I’ve been traveling about Santa Clara these past couple of weeks, training surly state workers on how to use the software that was developed by the Benthic Creatures parent company. Now, I’ve spent years and years and years — since junior high school, at least, a good twenty years — playing with computers and software and making them pling and plonk and buzz the way I like them to. And the other trainers who work for Benthic Creatures are at more or less the same level of experience. Sure, some of us are more computer literate than I am and others can just about operate their computer but don’t know how to program a website; but on the whole, we’re all pretty familiar with the basic concepts of computers.

You might say, in essence, that I’ve come from a culture where computers are part of everyday existence, and to live without them is pretty much incomprehensible.

But the computerized culture that I come from is not the only culture that’s around. The more I train some of these mollusc handlers, the more I realize that there are lots of people who don’t have that kind of computer experience. Some of them don’t know how to log on to Windows. Some of them have trouble double-clicking on a desktop icon. If I were to tell them that the software runs on a remote server which runs a proprietary operating system independent of Windows or any flavor of Unix, they’d either get a glassy-eyed look on their faces, or they’d run in terror.

It’s so tempting to call them stupid and leave it at that.

But it’d be wrong.

In my first year of college, I lived in the dormitories with about fifty other freshmen. I remember sitting in my friend’s dorm talking about Renaissance Faire when someone else came in and asked my friend what a bodice was. My friend answered her; and when she had left, my friend turned to me and said, “Can you believe she didn’t even know what a bodice was?”

And in one of my very few moments of intelligence I replied, “Well, I didn’t know what a bodice was until you told me a couple of months ago. And you know what? She probably knows a lot more about football than I ever would.”

“Yeah, but who wants to know about football?” my friend said.

I shrugged. “Who wants to know about bodices?”

I guess my point there was just that we all come from different places; and every time we think someone else is being stupid, chances are that they think we’re being stupid as well. The mollusc handlers that we’re training don’t use their computers as often as I do, and would probably be overwhelmed at the thought of building their own website, something which comes pretty naturally to me. On the other hand, I doubt that I could do their job, or that I would want to. It’s not that their job is unimportant; it’s just that I don’t have the skills needed to pull it off (or the patience to learn those skills, probably).

So I try to be very, very patient when I’m conducting the training. If someone else thinks I’m stupid for not being able to handle a mollusc, at least I can take the high road and say that I’m better than to think that they’re stupid for not being able to use a computer as competently as I do. But generally I find they react well to me being patient, and no one thinks I’m stupid — or, at least, no one tells me that to my face.

It’s very easy to go the other way around, too, and think that just because someone comes from a different culture or background, they’re somehow better or more enlightened. I remember when I was in Ireland with a friend of mine. We were in a pub and listening to the radio. A commercial for Guinness beer came on. My friend turned to me and said, “They’re commercials are so much more intelligent here, don’t you think?” I listened closely to this commercial and to some others and finally had to reply, “No, it’s the same crap we get in the US. It’s just done with an Irish accent so it sounds more intelligent.”

This is all just a reminder to myself, really. I’m no better than anyone else; but, then again, they’re not any better than me. I’ve seen people do some amazingly stupid things in my day; but, on the other hand, I’ve done some amazingly stupid things myself. If I hang on to that perspective, not only will my job go easier, but I’ll probably have a less stressful life as well.

On another note: if you haven’t voted yet, get thee hence and do so!