This doesn't happen to me as much as it used to, but I still sometimes see people complaining in the comments of an article or video "this is so basic, is there anyone that doesn't already know this?"

My dude.

A few months ago, one of the neighbor kids bought a gaming PC on Craigslist. He and his mom later asked me about good ways to free up hard drive space, because his new-to-him PC was almost full (and they knew I worked with computers).

I thought this was strange given that he'd only had the PC for a few weeks, so I asked them if they knew what was taking up all the space. They said "well the previous owner had a lot of movies and stuff."

That's right: THE PREVIOUS OWNER'S STUFF WAS STILL ON THERE.

So not only did the guy selling this PC not know enough to realize he should wipe the hard drive before selling it, the folks who bought it didn't know enough to realize they should wipe the hard drive after buying it.

This is the general population of computer users.

My point isn't to shame these people who are trying to learn. My point is to shame those who think everyone is a gaming nerd veteran who thinks they know everything.

Everyone started somewhere.

Every time you read an article or watch a video that seems basic, remember that some 13 year old kid is reading that article and learning something new. Or heck, a 40 year old who just put a GPU in their office PC is getting back into the scene—and learning something new.

Moral: don't be a jerk and/or idiot.

Bonus moral: definitely don't be a jerk and "correct" someone else with demonstrably false information. If I had a nickel for every reddit thread...but that's another rant.