More from Stewart Brand’s book in progress.

The universal advice from professional maintainers to every impatient equipment misuser is an expletive: “Read The Fucking Manual!”

By which they mean: Part of taking proper ownership of something is to study its manual first. Owner’s manuals, along with offering a good introduction to the thing owned, are usually informative on preventive maintenance, and most provide a trouble-shooting section for simple fixes. If you take the thing to a professional for what turns out to be something minor that is thoroughly covered in the manual, they may well charge you extra for being obtuse and annoying. If you ask online for a solution, you’ll get the acronym version: “RTFM!” —typically used, says Wikipedia, “to reply to a basic question where the answer is easily found in the documentation, user guide, owner’s manual, online help, internet forum, software documentation, or Frequently Asked Questions.”

Brand, Stewart. Maintenance: Of Everything, Chapter 2 – Vehicles

I can’t help but thinking that the tech world version of RTFM is enrollment in the formal training and getting certified.