People just don’t know how anything works. They buy phones and have no idea how they work, cars, computers, everything is a black box to most people.

This isn’t entirely their fault; the makers of these products have deliberately made them harder and harder to tinker with and learn from over the years.

But even the people who are supposed to know how things work don’t know how they work - my experience hiring people is that basically anyone who grew up with home wifi, cell phones, online gaming instead of LAN parties, etc. doesn’t know anything about how networks or computers actually function, no matter what degrees or certifications they claim to have.

I’ve asked people applying for network engineer positions to explain how the Internet works, and they thought I was being philosophical. Like, woah, man, how does the Internet work? The conceptual map just isn’t there, even if I try to gently lead them through it.