The learning curve and the danger zone (Score 1)

Teaching people always requires more work in the short term, but less in the long term. I taught one friend of mine about computers while we were roommates, and we had some pretty good laughs about the mistakes he made. Within one week, he deleted system files off of his windows machine twice that required a reinstallation each time. That was the short term... he was constantly yelling for me to come help. And I did, and as I did, I taught him more. Now he's pretty good with computers. He can fix his own problems now, and I haven't had to help him for a long time. There is a "danger zone" in knowledge about computers, but once you get past that, then things improve quickly, and soon they are teaching others about computers. Moral of the story: patience. I too killed the operating system when I was learning about my first computer... it shouldn't surpise me too much of other people do to in an effort to learn. But in reference to that book? First thing you should teach them is how to back up their important data. After they do that... let them do whatever they want to their computer. It is theirs afterall. And if they break it, then it will be their challenge to fix it, and when they can successfully do that, then they are on their way.