Tech Support - How We Computer People Actually Do It

Like most technically-oriented computer people, I have friends, relatives, co-workers and acquaintances who are not computer people... they tend to regard computers, and software running on them, as difficult-to-understand mysteries.

This view of computers and software is especially noticeable when they want to accomplish something specific but cannot immediately determine how to do it. The non-computer person will then ask the computer person for assistance. The computer person then, often, "magically" provides a solution to the frequent amazement of the non-computer person...

"How did you do that/figure that out?", asks the non-computer person.

For the benefit of all the non-computer people I know, here's an explanation from the xkcd webcomic on how we work our magic:

source: http://xkcd.com/627/