Scientists in lab coats tell us that when we see someone make a mistake, we experience a specific kind of pain. It is the same kind of pain we would feel if we were making the mistake ourselves. In my experience, it feels kinda like frustration. A common human response to this feeling is to try to “help” the person making the mistake. It’s not so much that we want their existence to be more pleasant, we just don’t want to have to suffer vicariously over lessons we’ve already learned. I think this is a pretty common way for information to move around, especially information about how to do things.

My wife hates when I “help”. She comes from a very polite family. I come from a family that, in aggregate, thought inflicting physical pain was an acceptable and effective way to communicate. My peers behaved in much the same way, but replaced charlie horses and joint locks with sarcasm and insults. I try not to be like that, but I suppose she and I are calibrated to different norms. While I intend my “OMG NOOB LOL! u r doin it rong dumbass” to be a friendly and helpful tip, for some reason it makes her tense and unhappy. Women!

Over the years I noticed that advice delivered on the spot does no good. So I just sit there, writhing on the inside, and occasionally ask, “may I do that for you?” It is not really a good solution.

Fortunately, this blog has exactly one regular reader. She knows that if she stops reading, it will hurt my feelings and I will cry but I’ll cry on the inside and not even tell her for a couple of years and then spring it on her out of nowhere. And so, I am going to talk about effective Googling.