I remember several instances from "back in the day" (early 90s) when I got called to help people with computers, me being a high-school computer science student back then. That is a class in high-school already, specialized in informatics. Most people would have zero computer-related classes back then, lucky ones would maybe get one or two a week. We did 10 or 12 a week, basically one or two every day.
So anyhow, someone has purchased a 486 PC with a CD player capable of playing audio CDs (hardware decoding at the time) but for the life of him couldn't get it to play the CDs he has purchased. Tried solving it over the phone to no avail so eventually had to go there in person and ... was left speechless. The guy was inserting CDs into the drive ... face up. I asked him why on Earth would he do that, it didn't occur to me someone would even attempt that. Well, he said, that's how you put records into a vinyl / turntable player, aren't you? Suddenly I realized how much implicit information we take for granted and explained him how it works with CDs.
The other case was a high school professor who had taken computer science classes and now has purchased a brand new computer with at the time new Windows 95. But couldn't do anything with it, nothing worked! I went there in person again and he showed me: started the computer which after boot logged in directly into Windows 95 (I think they didn't have a login prompt at the time). Then proceeded to the keyboard and typed "dir" then pressed Enter. "Look, see? Nothing!". Again it was a flabbergasting moment for me, realizing he'd taken DOS lessons :) Nobody told him about or shown him a graphical user environment so he was excused for trying to apply what he learned in those rather expensive private computer classes.
The gymnasium school I was attending at the time had one (and only one) of these provided by the communist state for educational purposes. The price at the time was prohibitive, about 10x the average salary and that without a floppy disk. Floppy would set you back another 10 salaries. But price tags were fairly pointless anyways, you couldn't get one even if you had the money because like cars, they weren't readily available. You'd sign up for a car and get it in maybe 5 years, with computers it was pretty much the same unless you had "relations" and used "lubricant". When my father bought the expensive cassette radio player that broke after several months he didn't pay for it as much with money as with a pair of these: https://frankfurt.apollo.olxcdn.com/v1/files/bnwivc6doz733-R... . Literally with cheese, not slang "cheese". Which even today are freaking expensive, back then were basically impossible to get unless ...
Well anyhow, I had attended various "school clubs" which promised to be slightly more interesting than the "math club" but they were all short lived, having been started by temp teachers who happened to be assigned to the school, worked in my village school for a year at most then took off.
So imagine my excitement when the school's director and math teacher called volunteers for a computer science club. I joined along with many others and the day came when thing got started. A TV got brought in along with the marvel, looking through manuals and manually turning knobs and revolving potentiometers we finally saw the "I.C.E Felix - H.C. 85" (Intreprinderea (de) Calculatoare Electronice Felix - Home Computer 85) message appearing on the screen ... and... it was at that point that the director realized he didn't knew anything more about using a computer. Power up, hook it up and ... that was it :) Talk about "I didn't thought this through" :D Frantically trying to figure out something he told us he's going to sign up for a computer science course and will resume the informatics club, left us kids with the computer for the rest of the class then closed the door of the laboratory never to open again :)
It did however prompt an interest in computers on my side, bought a book about them and didn't understood a single word, it was different from math. Eventually once I finished gymnasium I went for computer science class at the toughest high school in the county (informatics class being the toughest in high school of course) and my math club attendance (held by the very same gymnasium director) did help me in passing the cut-throat admission exam. 30 years later here I am, making a good living out of programming computers.
Romania is and was a fairly advanced place since at least Dacian times (Romans didn't spend the effort to invade it for nothing).
Dacia https://ro.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dacia_1300 was such a vastly superior car to Trabant that it even transpired from popular culture into shows as Archer. Unfortunately like the computers, production was largely confined to citizens so not many might have heard about them (automotive and computer industry) abroad.
So anyhow, someone has purchased a 486 PC with a CD player capable of playing audio CDs (hardware decoding at the time) but for the life of him couldn't get it to play the CDs he has purchased. Tried solving it over the phone to no avail so eventually had to go there in person and ... was left speechless. The guy was inserting CDs into the drive ... face up. I asked him why on Earth would he do that, it didn't occur to me someone would even attempt that. Well, he said, that's how you put records into a vinyl / turntable player, aren't you? Suddenly I realized how much implicit information we take for granted and explained him how it works with CDs.
The other case was a high school professor who had taken computer science classes and now has purchased a brand new computer with at the time new Windows 95. But couldn't do anything with it, nothing worked! I went there in person again and he showed me: started the computer which after boot logged in directly into Windows 95 (I think they didn't have a login prompt at the time). Then proceeded to the keyboard and typed "dir" then pressed Enter. "Look, see? Nothing!". Again it was a flabbergasting moment for me, realizing he'd taken DOS lessons :) Nobody told him about or shown him a graphical user environment so he was excused for trying to apply what he learned in those rather expensive private computer classes.