it seems this case wasn't willful ignorance because it should be the parents responsibility to teach him.

There's also the possibility that the person doesn't understand it enough to be able to explain it to someone else. Being able to do something and understand it are two different things.

Not so much the ability, but the incentive to do so. Goes right along with lane discipline. Today it was yet another moron in a Mercedes who came halfway accross into my lane before turning off without indicating.

While polite/ manners differ somewhat between cultures, rude and entitled is universally understood. Trying to be polite will get you everywhere, and specific customs might even be politely explained by the locals. In short- it is an attitude thing.

It's mostly people who don't read a lot of books - reading makes it so much easier to know how a text should be constructed

This used to bother me way too much but I've calmed down. If the wrong one is used, everyone knows what the person meant. Since the purpose of language is to share ideas, they completed the task. I now think it only matters when the different homonyms can lead to total confusion (The priest was last seen on the altar with his hands on a choir boy preying/praying on the young child).

isn't that a skill learnt in school?

"Able" is a skill that can be taught. "Willing" is an attitude that can't be fixed.

Why use ten different bags to begin with? Heavy stuff on the bottom, more fragile things on top. Done.

Knowing your idioms as well. It's "From the get go" not "from the gecko"; "A bull in a china shop", not "a bowl in a china shop", etc.

Table manners in general!

That's not a lack of basic skill/knowledge - that's being a lazy asshole

Learning to sew a button back on is a great skill to have - had to do that many a time when I wore a shirt and tie every day for work - fix it back in the hotel of an evening and then you won't lose the button on the way home.

The number of people with a complete lack of mechanical sympathy never ceases to amaze me. If you slam doors like that, or treat the accelerator in the car as an on/off switch, things will eventually break!

Following a series of fires cause by driers that collected lint where they shouldn't, there was a big recall of the affected models, with free replacements being provided, even for quite old machines. The replacements state very clearly that the lint trap must be emptied after each use.

I'm kind of the opposite. I grew up with computers, before even mobile phones were around. I can work a smartphone (and even develop Apps for it), but typing on a phone to me is like trying to knit a scarf with your eyes shut. Give me a proper keyboard and I'll give a professional typist a run of their money!

Consistently had students jamming their USB drives into the HTMI port on the school lap top to try to open their presentations and I kept telling them "its the wrong port" and they just looked at me like an alien and said they weren't good with computers.

I can verify this. I have witnessed teenagers being unable to open an email, add an attachment to it, drag and drop files and save files anywhere other than a default folder.

I'm 31 and when I was in school I was one of the only kids who could use a computer and had broadband when it came out. We weren't rich either, my dad is just really into computers and started me at a young age. Others were amazed I could touch type and knew how to navigate a PC. I've had one of my kids teachers complain about too much screen time. The "I'd limit it to max 2 hours on a weekend" like they think my kids don't get out enough, like it's impossible to have a balance. My dad was right back in the 90s, knowing how to use PCs and tech on general is important these days.

Does this means that they don't know where to plug keyboards monitors and mice in, that they don't know how to send and attach a file to an email and how to use the control panel and settings?

All of the teens and young people who grew up solely using smartphones will have to learn how to use a desktop computer the hard way once they have jobs. It should be taught in school these days, since a lot of young people probably don't have access to desktops at home.

I teach middle school kids, and it always amazes me that they can text like lightning on their phones, but the moment a real keyboard is put in front of them, they're at a complete loss.

Another library-related reflexion. Most of my coworkers are baby-boomers and they think young people, and especially Gen Z kids, are ALL genius digital natives who can do wonders with computers. I've had to explain them many times that not only computers are not a thing to young people anymore, but worse : due to that exact same false belief that kids should naturally know how to use computers and internet, nobody actually bothered to teach them how to do it. Which means, for kids who didn't grow with internet at home, that social media , youtube and online games are all they know of, and whenever they have to do some basic research about some less familiar stuff, they're essentially clueless. To the point they don't really know how to google it to begin with.

This is a caused by the myth that old people can't use tech and young people are born knowing everything about it

Master graduates in our company never worked with Excel...

I really thought all young generations especially on their 20s are really good with computers.

My first experience with computers was in the 90s, learning MS DOS. Modern computers are so easy by comparison.

What I found surprising is the number of 20 somethings I used to supervise who were absolutley clueless.

Sometimes, the written instructions are badly worded or the sketches in the instructions make no sense.

I met a guy who cooked everything with a drip coffee maker. Closed bag of frozen food, drip hot water over, repeat until "ready".

I was amazed, and also of course repulsed, when an ex of mine apparently didn't know how how to properly wipe his a5s after using the toilet. Skidmarks (and I mean, massive ones) were just a normal part of life for him. I tried to talk to him about it but he wasn't having it. Glad to be out of that one for many reasons.

Not quite the same, but I wish someone had discussed how interest on loans could really add up. Did not figure that out until my early 20's.

That panic of my coworkers running to me with bleeding fingers or Burns like whatdoido whatdoido?! Duh?!

That is down to the parents. My son's teachers have told us they can tell which children are read to every night and which aren't. The children who don't get read to at night for example read in the monotone and kids that are read to are much more expressive.

Well you sure as hell aren't going to get anywhere if you rely on Windows Troubleshooter!

Despite having both a smartphone with GPS and a dedicated GPS device, I still enjoy the comfort of keeping an old, massive Thomas Guide in the trunk of the car. ;-)

A lot of these "lacking basic skills" things are down to laziness too. I'm not a good cook by any means, but if I have to cook something and I'm not sure how to do it I look it up. The internet will tell me and I won't burn my house down.

A related peeve I have - is it really necessary for the characters on some drama series (like Westworld) to use f**k in every sentence? It's not as if I don't occasionally swear as well, but it ceases to be "edgy" and just starts getting tedious and boring after a while.

You mean a formal email? Like a letter? Because that's another skill that is sadly lacking.

First day of work the foreman told the new hire to sweep the floor. "But I have a Ph.D.!" - "Oh, sorry, I did not realize. I will show you how to do it..."

More specifically, close the damn thing after yourself.