According to the creator, he never expected the group to even hit 10k members, let alone attract the massive number of followers it has seen recently. “The group has become a place to share things that many find funny using shared experience. (In the words of Sybok, ‘Share your pain and gain strength from the sharing.’) The group banner of the ‘ESC’ key leaving the keyboard is on purpose. Many have commented it gives them a needed break, an escape, from the constant stress and pressure they feel at work,” he told Bored Panda earlier.
“For some of the posts, it definitely helps to have a background in some aspect of IT, whether it be programming, networking, cybersecurity, administration, or tech support. The play on words and concepts can be somewhat confusing if you don’t understand them,” the creator explained.
“That being said, a majority of posts are general enough that anyone should be able to get the humor. What I like to see are posts where ‘It’s funny because it’s true’ could be a caption. When humor mirrors real life with experiences the reader has had, it’s a connection and makes it all the funnier for them.”
For Paquette, one of the best parts of working in IT is that it’s always changing. “There’s something more or something new to learn. Never a dull moment as the underlying technologies advance and change. There’s always a way to look at a problem differently, and for the most part, if you need help, someone else has usually encountered the issue you are having and might be able to help,” he said.
Some posts and discussions on the group get closed down because they get a bit too tense.
Paquette urges everyone to let people enjoy things and to remember that what unites all the members is their love of IT. “There are generally ‘two camps’ in tech; ‘Us’ and ‘Them,’” he noted. “For example, Android and iOS, Linux and Windows, Apple and Microsoft. Techs have their favorite OS, device, tool, app, or method of doing something; we all do. The Dunning-Kruger effect is alive and well within IT as quite a few techs have the ‘my way or the highway’ mindset. This results in a religious OS war between rivalries, with some discussions of ‘Us and Them’ [becoming] ‘Us vs. Them,’ devolving to ‘Me vs You’ very quickly, with comments becoming insults,” he said.
In another interview with Bored Panda, Paquette opened up that he has over 30 years of experience in IT. “With 30+ years under my belt, I’m more of a jack of all trades when it comes to IT. Plunk me down in just about any situation, and I’ll either get going right away or figure out how to get it done. However, if I had to pick my strongest suit, it would have to be systems administration and being able to connect high-level ideas to the low-level systems and processes. Because I’ve done both throughout my career, I’m great at connecting the two,” he told us.
What first got him interested in computers was a classmate who brought his Apple II+ to school to show them the ‘Lunar Lander’ video game. “My mind was blown. I knew at that moment I wanted to program and work with computers as a career,” Paquette said.
“Over the years, I’ve gained loads of experience in software development, system administration, DB management, vendor management; you name it, I’ve probably touched on it from doing the work, all the way to managing others that do the work.”
