As a millennial, I grew up on the internet. I spent a lot of my childhood around computers and electronics. I started with Facebook when I was 14. And over time, that fascination with electronics and the internet has resulted in me getting building a career in the software industry.

All of that has contributed to me being considered “tech savvy”. To the point where a lot of my older friends turn to me as the first line of tech support.

I’ll be honest though: I’ve never used most software, and will never use everything that’s out there. So what goes into being “good” with computers? I’m hoping that this will shed some light on what goes on in my head when I’m navigating new software.

Structure

I played a lot of videogames growing up. And in a lot of games, there’s some kind of puzzle to solve, like the Legend of Zelda games. Imagine being in a room with a locked door ahead. There’s a square-shaped hole next to the door. That’s a hint that I need to look for something square-shaped in order to move forward.

Using technology is similar to navigating one of those puzzles. Like those puzzles, most (well-designed) websites follow a certain structure. Social media sites have a newsfeed section and a personal profile section; ecommerce sites have a product listing and a shopping card. And knowing how to use that website mostly comes down to navigating that structure.

Most sites pride themselves on being user-friendly, intuitive, and easy to use. There are multiple ways to skin a cat, but for most sites that converges to a small handful of options. Because what’s easier to learn than something you already know how to use?

Exploration

Don’t get me wrong; it took some time to get used to different software structures. And when Facebook or Reddit inevitably changes their site layout again, it’s something I’ll begrudgingly re-learn in order to continue using those sites. And ultimately that’s the key: to approach it with a perspective of learning and practice. It’ll take time to really learn how to use a site. But b

When I’m working with new technologies, I’ll often spend 5-10 minutes just tinkering with it and exploring to get a sense of the layout.

Consider a child with an RC car; they’re unlikely to read the full user manual. Alternatively, they might just push every button and manipulate every part that looks like it can be manipulated. They might break it, but when only software is involved, there’s a lot less to break (physically, at least…I’ve seen the kind of things that break on the backend).

Similarly, every app and website has a bunch of options for levers and buttons to interact with. Webpages have search bars and clickable links, whereas smartphones have swipes, taps, and extended touches on virtually every part of the app.

Apps only have so many places to look; even if I search blindly, I’ll find what I’m looking for if I keep clicking around and pulling different levers.

Google

And if all else fails, try Google. As someone who spends most of his time on the internet, this is easily one of my favorite resources. As a coder, it’s surprising how often I use it to search for solutions to problems I face in my daily work.

And it’s a fairly easy site to use: just go to google.com and type in your question. Then the search results should direct you to several sites which are likely to have the right answer.