...With friends like these.

[x88x]

And I'm not sure if the problem is people not 'being interested' in solving their own problems as much as it is them lacking critical thinking skills.

Nope, it's that they're not interested (at least in my experience that's more common). For example, two of the guys I work with just could not understand why on earth I would want to do my own car work. ..granted, neither of them has any knowledge or experience in the subject, so that might have something to do with it..

[artoodeeto]

Nope, it's that they're not interested (at least in my experience that's more common). For example, two of the guys I work with just could not understand why on earth I would want to do my own car work. ..granted, neither of them has any knowledge or experience in the subject, so that might have something to do with it..

I agree. People like my mom are very intelligent, but she's not the slightest bit interested in how computers work, and so will never be able to solve any but the most basic of issues due to a complete lack of desire to learn enough about how it works to troubleshoot it. For her, it's faster and easier to have someone else do it. To a certain extent too, how people think is important. I know I'm pretty good at problem solving, envisioning things in my head before I build them, etc (all of which come in handy while modding), but many people just don't think that way. I wouldn't necessarily fault them for it...although mdust has a good point - a LOT of people feel like they look dumb when someone else comes along and fixes the problem in under a minute. The only thing that makes them dumb is putting up with a problem solely for that reason...
And of course there are chronic assistance-abusers, you know the type. They seem completely unable to think for themselves and come running to you for solutions to every single problem. And they seem to have an inordinate amount of them too. I used to work with someone like that, and it was horrible. She finally got let go, but while she was a coworker she consistently amazed me with her complete lack of critical thinking capacity.

[dr.walrus]

I've got a friend who I've just replaced their laptop hard drive and re-installed windows for - I charged them the cost of the drive plus a bottle of wine. I've had exams and a two hour job has taken 6 weeks and they haven't complained once. They've asked me about it two or three times but never been pushy because they understand it's for free, even though it's started to become an inconvenience.

That's how people SHOULD be if you do them a favour