I'm tired of being ignorant about computers

Feb 21, 2023
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Every time I log into this site to ask a question, I often find myself Googling how to perform the solution recommended to me by the users on this site.

How do I 'learn 2 computer?' Like what would be a good starting resource for learning about how a computer operates?
 
Pretty much exactly what you described.
There is so much out there to learn about, that you cant just "learn" about everything in general.
Come across a problem, find a solution, work your way through it. You have now learned a little bit more. Even if you have to google along the way, you are still learning. Everyone has a different starting point.
Thats how I got to this point. Running into my own issues or helping other people and looking things up to figure it out and slowly retaining the info.
 
I grew up during a time when Google wasn't really a thing. It worked sometimes, but most times I just had to make due. Here's what I can recommend:
  • Read anything you can about computers. Be it from magazines, books, or whatever.
  • Actually put what you know into practice. Be bold, be unafraid to mess with your computer. Unless you're dealing with cooling or overclocking, there's almost nothing you can do to the computer that will outright destroy it. So go ahead, have fun
  • And when you do break things, figure out how to undo them.
  • And if you ever ask "what happens if I do this?" Do it.
 
Every time I log into this site to ask a question, I often find myself Googling how to perform the solution recommended to me by the users on this site.

How do I 'learn 2 computer?' Like what would be a good starting resource for learning about how a computer operates?

Introductory classes at a nearby junior college; not necessarily intending to get a degree, just to learn?

That's what I did. I was older than baseball at the time. I had never touched a mouse when I walked into the first class.


Buy a cheap used secondary computer and use it as a test bed to learn how to disassemble it, reassemble it, install software, etc....most of the principles that would apply to a 10 or 15 year old computer still apply.

Lots of areas in the country have "clubs" or groups of some kind related to learning about PCs......for instance at senior communities where a lot of people are 55 and over and didn't grow up with PCs. Maybe you can find such a group.

Youtube videos are at times useful, but the wheat to chaff ratio is quite low, with many of them unwatchable and misleading or worse.
 
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klavs

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Feb 27, 2023
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Every time I log into this site to ask a question, I often find myself Googling how to perform the solution recommended to me by the users on this site.

How do I 'learn 2 computer?' Like what would be a good starting resource for learning about how a computer operates?
I have been studying computer architecture, software engineering and personal computers on and off for 30+ years and it is a never ending process. And I often find myself "googling" to understand both the questions and the answers on this and other forums.

Buy and read books, search with google, youtube, brave, bing, duckduckgo, etc and watch and read guides & FAQs, frequently read various forums, ask questions ... this is the way to go.

You may want to enroll in a course or take some of the free online courses, for example mit courseware. It is not important if you get a diploma or paper, what is important that you lean what you want.

Creating your own projects also teaches you a lot of skills. It could be to build your own workstation or gamer pc. Write your own software. Create a Raspberry PI project, and so on.

Organize your bookmarks for easy reference.
 

Math Geek

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I found starting with understanding windows is a good first step. If you don't mind reading the "windows for dummies" is a good series of books. Explore windows as you read and tinker as it explains. This will go a long way toward understanding and fixing issues when you kind of understand how it all works together.

Don't try to get too technical right off as it will confuse you n tends to push you away.
 
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I started with no Internet. I learned by reading Computer Shopper magazine and looking at what was for sale and the articles.

While that magazine is long gone, there are still print and online magazines that you can supplement with Google, and I also would recommend the "Dummies" books, no offense intended. I usually use those when starting a new hobby/skill. Great baseline.
 

Math Geek

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and as others have said. asking yourself "how do i_______?" is a great way to learn. most of what i know is based on breaking my own system and then figuring out how to fix it.

the rest was friends and family bringing me their broken systems and asking me to fix it. of course this is more fun since "i didn't do or change anything, it just started happening...." is the only answer you get when asking questions to help understand what might be wrong. lol

it takes time but eventually you'll learn more and more. bit of caution though if you do plan on tinkering and breaking windows (which i highly encourage) don't do it with your daily driver windows install. either make a vm to play with or install windows a second time and mess with that one. the windows for dummies books always start with installing it so that's good practice as you start your journey doing a fresh install.
 
  • Actually put what you know into practice. Be bold, be unafraid to mess with your computer. Unless you're dealing with cooling or overclocking, there's almost nothing you can do to the computer that will outright destroy it. So go ahead, have fun
There are a lot of things someone can do to make almost any part of their system not work anymore or at least be less reliable.
sata connectors can break easily off of the drive end, fan cables can break, any connector like ram or pci can be corroded or mangled, screws can either be not screwed in correctly not connecting with earth or be too tight breaking the pad and shorting to a lower layer of the board.
The list is practically endless.

As lafong suggested, get yourself some PCs from goodwill or the flea market and have at it, systems you won't mind if anything breaks.
Don't touch your main system unless you know at least basic stuff.
 
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