Compulsory customer service for a couple years might make retail customers less miserable to deal with overall.

God, the amount of times I've had to explain the EcoTank vs HP math to customers in my store, and then STILL have them pick an HP is fucking baffling.

If the average user has to interact with a command line interface, EVER, as anything but a truly desperate last resort, with someone holding their hand the whole way through, they're probably gonna give up and never wanna look back.

A lot of people barely know how to copy and paste, or don't even know what the phrase "right click" means.

When I did some work from home training a year ago, I looked like a goddamn wizard for knowing how to manage browser tabs and put folders on my bookmarks bar.

TLDR: It needs to just work for people that don't know jack shit about using a computer, which in a lot of cases it just doesn't.

Also for the love of god, don't be sticking anything in places it could get lost without a flared base to keep at least part of it outside.

Chaotic feels more appropriate, since they're only really predictable if you try and think of the absolute dumbest possible thing they could say or do at any given moment.

I think I pretty quickly came to the conclusion that I was effectively being punished for understanding the normal material more easily than my classmates, and I didn't get why my "gifted and talented" work was necessary, since it was, to me, bonus material, and not even interesting bonus material.

A core memory of mine is after showing up one time without an assignment done, my teacher decided to go around the room asking what everyone wanted to be when they grew up. All my G&T classmates said standard kid answers like doctor, lawyer, firefighter, whatever. Not being a smartass, I gave the genuine answer that, because I really liked Taco Bell, and there was a taco bell in walking distance, I'd be happy to work there and get some free Taco Bell.

Teacher called my parents.

How the fuck was I supposed to know giving a real, and in hindsight significantly more attainable answer was unacceptable? We were in elementary school, so why the hell would I know at that point that basic food service is basically non-viable in America?

Gaslight Obstruct Project

I especially like raisins baked into pastries.

Willingness to info dump works wonders in a casual retail sales environment. Customers come up with what they think are silly questions, and I'll just give them as complete an answer as I can, engaging fully. Vast majority of them are greatly appreciative of it.

A few even come into my store specifically to find and ask me stuff.

Basically 3D Galaga with furries.

I do. The number one "complaint" people had with me pre-pandemic was that I should smile more. Not one fucking dumbass person has told me to do that when I have my mask on. That alone is enough reason for me to never take it off when I'm dealing with customers.

I am also still paranoid and I don't trust the average person out there to be doing safe things.

Mismanage something that I shouldn't be messing with and die.