Comment Re:THIS is why nerds are socially awkward (Score 1) 606
What you say is true, but it's missing what I think is an important point: when you're moving house (to take your example), you need to work as a team. You need to discuss what you're doing, what to move first, and so on. There is a lot of social interaction required.
By contrast, when fixing a computer I find it's mainly interaction between me and the computer. Of course I talk to the user about what the problem is, how they would prefer things to be set, and so on. If they want me to, I'll explain what I'm doing as I go. However, when the person you're helping is at a pretty low level of technical understanding then the explanations take a long time and can be quite frustrating for both parties. I find that most people would rather just leave you to get on with it and maybe write them some instructions on what to do (or not do) in future.
By way of a car analogy, if a mechanic friend was helping me fix my car, I'd gladly help them out but since I know absolutely nothing about cars I expect they would rather just get on with rather than explain the basics of what they were doing the whole way through while I stood there being mostly useless!