How to become tech-savvy

What is tech-savvyness? Why do some people have it and other don’t? If it’s something that is learned, does this mean that you can teach it?

I’ve been thinking about these questions (and more) lately, and there are a number of different answers. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

Tech savvyness is a combination of knowledge and attitude, of strong ability and a willingness to try and fail.

Let’s unpack these a bit.

Knowledge and Ability

Yes, to be tech savvy, you must know some stuff. But what stuff? For a start, you should know the stuff that you’ve already learned. If you figure something new out, write it down. Keep a notebook of tech things you know how to do, stick post-it notes to your monitor, or better yet, create an Evernote notebook with screenshots.

But how much stuff do you have to know? Well, to be competent, you must know the basics. If you know nothing, you can’t be tech savvy. I’ll use a web browser for example. You should know how to: change the homepage, find the settings and clear your saved passwords and history, how to check for and install updates, how to open and use new tabs, how to search google without going to google.com, etc.

Good news: Don’t disqualify yourself just yet, because like in all skills, tech-savvyness has a spectrum.

You can start off by being a little bit knowledgeable and increase from there.

But, if you don’t know much (or anything), how do you learn? If being tech-savvy is a seemingly innate ability to figure stuff out, then how do you become it if you don’t know anything to begin with?

Attitude is Everything

Being tech savvy means that you’re patient, inquisitive, and you’re not willing to give up. It means that you’re willing to try something out, fail, and then repeat until you find the solution.

Yes my friends, tech savvyness is not for the faint of heart. Not only do you have to attempt to figure it out, you have to continue to attempt to figure it out until you succeed. If you don’t try, you don’t really learn.

And once you learn, you have to remember. Isn’t that nice and cyclical? They call that a positive feedback loop.

When you come to a tech challenge, having knowledge gives you the ability to try different solutions, and having a good attitude enables you to continue trying (through failure), solve the problem, and then build more knowledge!