It's weird. I was at work yesterday waiting for the IT guy to get off K-Bone's machine (updating crap) and I immediately got a dose of the Poor Little End-User attitude. It wasn't overt to the point of offense, but it was an invisible attitude in the air that must be how any form of prejudice feels to the target. This must have been better than the standards, because it was merely "...but you wouldn't know anything about that; you're Not Geek." Nothing hateful, nothing poisonous, just something insufferably smug and superior.

So I immediately have to define my technical space in the social aether by bringing up my formal tech training. And the air cleared. The guy's attitude, fortunately, wasn't linked to gender.

I must watch that in myself, to not visibly carry that with me. I hope I don't, especially with people like the Trader Joe's Queen Monitor. Technical competence is something that I just take for granted in those around me. I mentioned that a year ago. Either the people around me are technically competent already, or I train them to a point where I can stand to be around them, or I'm just not around them.