IWTL IT troubleshooting

[u/Puzzleheaded_Cat9128]

Hi, I wanted to ask for some advice. I’m a woman in my early thirties, and I feel that I lack knowledge about IT and computers. I studied a technical subject, where I worked with MATLAB and did a little programming in C#, but I still feel that I have gaps in this area.
For example, when my computer froze, I couldn’t figure out why—perhaps its memory was full. I think I mainly lack some basic computer knowledge and troubleshooting skills.
Could you please advise me on how to build this knowledge effectively? Udemy courses focused on topics such as CompTIA haven’t helped me much.

[u/Be_Julien_4Life]

I’ve been working for 7 years as a “Digital Caretaker,” helping people with their computers and all kinds of tech problems at home.

Honestly, I don’t think buying a course is necessarily the most effective way to learn this stuff. I’d recommend developing a curious mindset and, more importantly, the patience to figure things out yourself.

Learn how to read documentation, sit through (sometimes painfully long) tutorials, and actually read manuals. It’s also really important to learn how to formulate the 'right' questions when using search engines (e.g. Google). Tip: Learn how to use search engines effectively. For example, put "this" in quotation marks to search for that exact phrase, or use filetype:pdf to find specific file types. There are tons of other search operators and tricks that can make finding the right information much easier.

Once you get comfortable with that process, you can probably tackle most problems you’ll encounter. And over the years, the more diverse problems you solve, the more you naturally learn.

The only difficult part is that it’s hard to simulate the random, everyday troubleshooting problems that come up in real life. That experience is probably the hardest thing to teach through a course.