Introduction
“Hi there, this is [redacted], how can I help you?”
“Seems my television isn’t working. It’s just displaying a bright blue screen.”
“Okay, I’ll try and help you with that! Can you check and make sure it’s plugged in?”
Pause. “Into the wall?”
“That’s right, there should be a cord coming out of the electrical socket in the wall.”
“Yeah, I know what electricity is. Did I mention that it’s showing a bright blue screen? Like, it’s clearly powered up.”
“Sure, but we need to check the electrical cord.”
“I’ll go now, thanks.”
Click. Redial.
“Hi there, this is [redacted], how can I help you?”
“Seems my television isn’t working. It’s just displaying a bright blue screen.”
“Okay, I’ll try and help you with that! Can you turn off all the circuit breakers in your house, and then turn them back on?”
Click.
We’ve all had calls like that, and I sure hope you’ve not been the circuit-breaker technician on one of them! Troubleshooting things sometimes seems like a mysterious dark art, available only to those with special aptitudes. Kind of like a wizard. And it’s true that really experienced people can make troubleshooting seem like magic, because they’ve done it so many times that they run through a lot of steps in their heads. There are also natural “logical thinkers” who pick up troubleshooting a little quicker, and it’s a little easier for them. But anyone can learn to be a better troubleshooter, and that’s what this book is all about.
Troubleshooting is not an art. It’s a science. Art stuff—painting, singing, whatever—usually does require some innate talent, along with tons of practice. Troubleshooting, technically, requires neither talent nor practice, although practice does make it go faster and smoother over time. Troubleshooting is something anyone can potentially do, so long as they possess three important personality traits:
- Patience. You can troubleshoot quickly, but only with practice. Troubleshooting is methodical, which means you can’t skip steps, which means sometimes it takes a while. That can make it hard to remain patient when someone is screaming at you about whatever you’re troubleshooting, but you need to remain calm and logical—almost Vulcan-like—in order to stay in the Zen Zone of Troubleshooting Nirvana.
- Bravery. Most of us don’t like to fail, especially in front of other people. But troubleshooting is all about coming up with a theory, and then either proving or disproving it, and you’re going to be disproving a lot more theories than you prove. So you’re going to look like you’re “failing” a lot. It’s part of the process, and you can’t skip it—you have to be brave enough to get through it.
- Obsessiveness. Troubleshooting requires a very consistent, methodical approach. You gotta do it the same way, every time, although sometimes you’ll develop the odd shortcut or two. But you need to obsess about the methodology, and the process. You can’t skip things. You often have to document a lot, and you need to be compulsive about that to make it all work out.
If all that sounds like it could be you, then you’re in the right place.
I wrote this book because, aside from the materials at Troubleshooters.com (which don’t really “speak” to me, personally), I wasn’t finding a lot of good books on “how to troubleshoot.” I think that troubleshooting is one of those skills that, once you develop it, truly elevates you above the rest of the pack. It’s been a core mover-and-shaker in my own career, and a someone who loves teaching, it’s something I wanted to try and express in my own words and share.
I always welcome feedback. You can use the “Hit Me Up” (HMU) link on my own site, DonJones.com.