this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2023
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Asklemmy

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I think most all of us here on Lemmy are people with technical background. Most of my professional contacts remained using Reddit, Twitter and even excited when Threads launched.

If you are non-tech background, please comment and share what you do for life.

If you have tech background, upvote this to help promote this post so that we can find more non-tech users on Lemmy.

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[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Lit major, no tech. Have taught kids, been unpaid home nurse, worked retail. I can turn it off and back on again, but that's all.

[–] eggshappedegg@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 year ago

Personal care assistant

[–] BigBananaDealer@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

dont know shit about tech. most i ever knew was how to play games on the school laptops using a bunch of workarounds or loopholes

[–] MagicalPanda@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

I work in a warehouse and take care of exotic animals on the side. I feel I have the basics down for tech but not enough to do IT or something. My family and friends contact me for tech help so I guess I know more than the average person. Even though I literally just Google everything, most of the time.

[–] Ultra980@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm a minor, so I can't have a job in tech, but I am really tech-savvy (I use NixOS and like to tweak every system I have)

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[–] panchzila@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Advertising illustrator. So not tech related.

[–] retrieval4558@mander.xyz 6 points 1 year ago

I'm in medicine. My level of computer literacy is that I've built several computers, and fuck around with easy versions of Linux for fun

[–] fly_paper_love_maker@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I’m in construction. Non-technical but I’m suffering/enjoying my way through NixOS. Been enjoying SSB for a while and always up for trying a new tech that could be an improvement over the corporate status quo.

[–] jezus_christus@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Psychiatric nurse here.

[–] guangming@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

I'm a gig worker who delivers food to people.

I almost went into CS and consider myself fairly well-educated, so I think although I'm not in tech I share a slightly similar background and sensibilities with Lemmy folks. I just got on here a couple days ago and it kinda reminds me of reddit back when I joined (hopefully minus the racism and spez's favorite subreddit)

[–] schmorpel@slrpnk.net 6 points 1 year ago

I don't work in tech but I do (I translate technical stuff). I'd say I'm very tech-adjacent, but nobody should hire me for any real coding or engineering jobs. But if you like to infodump about very technical stuff go ahead, I'll get sparkly eyes and start drooling. I'm also a tree-hugging hippy.

[–] UnknownQuantity@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Non-technical user here. Closed my business last year, currently between jobs. Any good business ideas that don't cost much to start up?

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degree in Visual Art, work in digital asset management for a marketing (blech) studio. I'd love to get into a DAM position at somewhere less ethically awful, like a symphony or museum or something, buuut my position pays really well relatively speaking to other similar similar jobs I've looked at, so that'll have to wait until I feel more established in life.

took a couple basic comp-sci classes in college, though, and went to a coding bootcamp before I got my current position. running linux on my laptop, might switch to it on my desktop. I make use of bash for renaming files a lot at my job.

there's a lot about tech-heavy areas that interests me, but it'd drive me crazy to be around too much of it. I think there's a lot of good in the liberal arts that tends to get missed by the sort of hard rationalists that tend to hang out in tech spaces.

[–] OceanSoap@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

I'm a Substation Designer. Non tech for sure. I had to get a coworker to plug up my monitors, I tried to do it myself and failed miserably.

[–] MidLifeCrisis@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

I’m something comparable to a bus driver

[–] miraclerandy@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

I’m in marketing and work on company websites from an SEO and content development perspective. Nothing too technical but I’m aware of some of it even if I don’t know how make a server/instance I’m aware of it’s benefits.

Also, I’ve done social media advertising and peeking behind that curtain opened my eyes on how advertisers use our data so it made me interested in open source and community run projects over company run software.

[–] eleitl@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

Nice to see so many non-technical users. It's good for diversity. HackerNews, Tildes, Hubski and Lobste.rs already cover that sphere pretty well.

History degree. Former lawyer. Current historian, public speaker, Podcaster, voice worker.

Not an official tech background, but I have built every desktop I have ever owned for decades. So I consider myself more knowledgeable than average. But less than anyone with a single year of comp sci training

[–] jrubal1462@mander.xyz 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Mechanical Engineer here. Although, most of us are either kinda' into tech, or kinda' in cars. I'm definitely not into cars.

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[–] trslim@pawb.social 6 points 1 year ago

I mean, I was a 25B in the army, which could be counted as technical, except that after training I pretty much never saw another army computer and became a radioman.

[–] nostradiel@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

I'm a warehouse operator but I'm in love with tech since my first PC. I love open source stuff, I also use linux, I always root my phones to gain proper control over it. Basically enthusiast..

[–] Magzmak@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Administration and office management but studied Ecology of course in college... it's like studying history in regards to getting a well paying job.

[–] Default_Defect@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

In a professional sense? Zero technical background. I have a general interest in tech, built a few computers and worked in an electronics section of a store for a few years (almost miss it.) Otherwise I'm the guy who has parents that say I should be in IT just because I know how to set up their TV.

[–] kairo79@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

I work in a food warehouse. I have a little idea about technology, flashing consoles and stuff like that

[–] gaydarless@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

My background is librarianship, but because I now work as a technical writer, I'm in close proximity to developers and I'm often looking at code and specs and such. I'm good at asking questions, which is what my job is really about. I'd say I know slightly more than the average joe on the street, but a lot less than anyone who's actually got a technical background and skillset. I do love learning, which is part of why I'm enjoying Lemmy so much. I didn't know much about the Fediverse or decentralised software. The learning curve has been fun!

[–] Rozz@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I am a ux designer and design in a tech company so I am around tech and development often. I also can do the bare minimum of coding as a hobby and enjoying tech topics.

It would be nice if lemmy had more non-tech communities as well though, but they are growing in number. I haven't used other social media besides Reddit or lemmy for years now and have no interest in any other.

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[–] CMLVI@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Graduated with a criminology degree, do work with vocational rehab and have done random stints of juvenile services. I don't have a tech background, but definitely have an interest in tech stuff, I'd say easily moreso than the average citizen.

But like, I've tried to learn HTML and I couldn't get past the first few Khan Academy lessons lol. The logic it used just didn't jive with my brain.

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[–] Asafum@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

I'm "technically/mechanically inclined" as they say, but formally, "professionally," I'm just a worthless factory worker schmuck lol

[–] JoumanaKayrouz@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I used to be a PE teacher, and now I sell parts for automation.

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[–] JimmyDean@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

Not really a tech person, most of my jobs have been in customer service or warehouse/manufacturing work. I mainly switched to lemmy because the 3pa change helped me realize I've been so tired of all the ads and bs reddit keeps pushing; it's pretty much garbage compared to the site it used to be 10+ years ago when I found it.

I do appreciate how much tech gets discussed here though. It's interesting to see things talked about that I wouldn't normally be exposed to, so I do learn a bit from time to time.

[–] DurDurHurHur85@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Physical therapist assistant

[–] Worstdriver@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Very mixed background. Retail, customer service, warehouser, some technical support (HP laser printers in the 00s), a season and a half of a TV show, single-dad, commissioned fanfiction writer...

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[–] President_Pyrus@feddit.dk 5 points 1 year ago

It isn't my field, but tech and selfhosting is definitely my hobby.

[–] Monkyhands@feddit.dk 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I am not at all from a tech background. I have a humanities/ social science educational background, I work in the organizational management space, for a humanitarian organization.

I do not enjoy a lot of social media, but I had been using Reddit for 8+ years, as my only social media platform really. I enjoyed it for the specialist communities focused on niche interests. I’m hoping to replicate some of that with Lemmy, which is much more aligned with my value set than a large corporate run social platform.

[–] ArtieShaw@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

I'm technically non-tech, but have a bachelors degree in a hard science. I say technically because I did learn a bit of programming and other skills because I'm of a certain age and also you sort of have to if you want to make your work life not suck.

If I can create an automation that can do something that would normally take me days or weeks? Hells yes. (+1 if it's a fun challenge and +2 if I can transfer a time-saving tool to my co-workers).

But it looks like magic (scary magic) if you don't have that background/skill set.

And... long story short... I now work in a science-adjacent job but I've also gained the reputation as a "computer hacker" at my workplace. I appreciate how funny that is because I'm nothing of the sort! The thing is: a colleague once - in all seriousness - reported me to IT for these "hacking exploits" that I was committing. With VBA for Excel.* Fortunately, IT laughed their asses off when they heard that one and I've retained my job.

  • to be fair, it was a prank that I ran on her and my other colleague.

I'm doing PhD in math, but I've always been interested in tech and programming.

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