I used to say I wanted to test an idea, open up a terminal, run some basic commands like ls and grep. Then ask them to do a restart so none of my tests would “cause a conflict”.
This is a really solid solution. Everyone knows about the "did you turn it off and on again? " trope so instead of them pretending or what not you make them feel like they’re problem solving with you.
I used to ask customers to unplug their modem, tell me were the pins on the plug all brass or did it have black tips so I knew which model they had.
In reality I just wanted them to turn the damn thing off and on again
I used to say I wanted to test an idea, open up a terminal, run some basic commands like ls and grep. Then ask them to do a restart so none of my tests would “cause a conflict”.
Works constantly.
This is a really solid solution. Everyone knows about the "did you turn it off and on again? " trope so instead of them pretending or what not you make them feel like they’re problem solving with you.