One of the things that I often do (to my own detriment) is that I make tasks much harder than they are by failing to think about them with some common sense in mind. I’m starting to learn that relying on previous experiences to guide me can greatly assist with doing things but it’s still difficult for me to adjust to sometimes. The main time that this becomes a problem is whenever I try to use a new piece of technology.

A recent example of this occurred when I decided to look at CD labelers and DVD labelers. I wanted a disk printer that could do DVD printing for me. I shopped around for weeks before I finally settled on a machine which I chose specifically because it purported to be a really simple machine to use.

I followed the instructions on the manual regarding how to set up the printer. I did everything that the manual said to a T. And then I tried to print and my computer just wouldn’t allow the machine to print on the disk. I tried in vain to figure out what was wrong with it. Finally I called my techie friend who said, "did you install the printer?"

Of course I know that a new printer has to be installed on the computer before the computer will recognize it and choose to make it work. I just hadn’t used the common sense gained from my experience with other printers to take that into consideration with the disk printer.

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