Do you know people like this who distrust their own ability to use stuff?

maybe those fishermen friends of yours are a bit old already? their gray hair shows wisdom indeed. :) we must admit that there is a term called generation gap. and sometimes people who were born in the 1980s are not adept or even comfortable to use techie stuffs and gadgets. but to be scared of using a technical thing at first is okay. i myself had experienced how to feel unsure when using a computer way way back in my primary years. that's why i even took a course to study it. but there are those people even at their old age who are not afraid to try using gadgets the first time they put their hand on it. it's a matter of being confident of your own ability i guess. by the way, i like your pic with the boat and a child on it. :) so refreshing!

Yes I do - step forward Sandra1952! I just don't do technical, and if everyone else was like me, the wheel wouldn't have been invented yet. If I try anything new with my laptop, I'm convinced the whole thing will collapse on me and I'll lose over 2 years of articles and photos. As for reading the manual, it may as well be written in Serbo Croat or Klingon for all the sense I can make of it. I'm a dreamer and an artist, not a technical whizz kid. I've had stuff demonstrated to me, but it's so far over my my head it's in the stratosphere. And for someone who can remember the dates of nearly all the kings and queens of England, and the dates of all Shakespeare's plays, I forget any technical details before my brain even has chance to register. My husband, Tony, is just as bad, although he's great with engines and things. I've lost count of the number of times I've told him he only needs to hit the 'print' button once, but yesterday we he did it again. Anyone want a copy of the properties of Seagull outboard engines? We've got 15 to spare!

just to add a few lines, sometimes it is due to being skeptical about using new things and people are used to the conventional. my two cents.

You expect men to read the manual??? (Sorry guys) We have something like this on our boat and my husband never uses it. I asked him about it once...we have a manual for it...but he says he doesn't need it. If he hits something he'll know it as soon as he hits it and apparently he uses ESP to locate fish.