As IT recruitment professionals based in South Africa we enjoy leasurely strolling around on IT related Subreddits to get an idea what the global IT community is thinking. Today we came across “The 16 Rules of Information Technology” and thought we can’t deprive you of something so cool. South African IT community – can you identify?
*E: I wrote this with help desk folks in mind, but I feel like the more hands-on (willingly or not) admins among us will be able to relate with most of these.
*E2: Hex, because hex.
The 16 Rules of Information Technology
0x00: Users lie.
0x01: Turn it off and back on. Especially if the user insists they have already done so.
0x02: If it’s worth having, it’s worth having a backup.
0x03: Never disassemble anything you can’t reassemble from memory.
0x04: A problem does not officially exist until a ticket has been submitted.
0x05: Not until the most experienced person in the room says “oh, shit,” is the issue an official “oh, shit.”
0x06: There are no such thing as “extra” screws.
0x07: A quiet ticket queue is not always a good sign.
0x08: Nothing is, has never been, or will ever be “user proof.”
0x09: You never, ever want to know what the mysterious fluid is.
0x0A: Mrs. UPS and Mr. Screwdriver are not friends.
0x0B: If you can smell the magic smoke, you already done goofed up.
0x0C: “Working just fine” and “too screwed to log an error” look an awful lot alike.
0x0D: Loose wires will attempt to mate. When wires mate, things get messy.
0x0E: The Principle of Least Privilege is not a suggestion.
0x0F: Respect your sysadmin; they’re the one who fixes your fixes.