Heard a guy at the Micro Center in Denver call a CPU the 'computer's brain box' to a customer

I was grabbing some thermal paste and this older guy was helping someone pick parts. He pointed at the CPU and said, 'This right here is the brain box, it does all the thinking.' The customer just nodded like it made perfect sense. It made me think about how we explain things to people who don't know tech. Do you guys have any funny or simple ways you describe parts to clients?

3 comments

3 Comments

sandrashah14d ago

My buddy Mark was building a PC for his aunt last year. She kept calling the power supply the 'juice pack' because it plugged into the wall. He went with it and said the graphics card was the 'picture painter'. The whole build was explained like a weird art project... it actually worked for her.

wendy_ross7114d ago

That "weird art project" way of explaining things is spot on, @sandrashah. I see it all the time when people try to describe a problem to me, they'll call a wasp nest a "paper balloon" or something. You just gotta use the words that make the picture click for them, not the textbook terms.

the_alice14d ago

I always thought you had to use the right tech words for people to get it. But meeting them where they're at with names like that actually makes way more sense. Guess the goal is just to help them understand, not to sound smart.