Tell them "Only if you help me" and make them sit and watch and learn. If they stop watching/helping, so do you. They will then learn how time consuming it can be and it's not just one magic secret.

[–] stickyprimer@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If it’s a very well defined task with repeatable steps, sure. Often it’s more like “why won’t my CarPlay open my garage door?” And in those cases I barely even know where to start and need to experiment and fiddle, and the last thing I want is them hanging on my arm asking questions and offering bad theories.

[–] GreenBeanMachine@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

That's exactly when I want them hanging around, so they learn that I don't know shit, and now we both will be learning how to fix something at the same time

Next time they will think "he doesn't know shit himself, no point in asking, might as well Google myself how to fix"