This is a way broader phenomenon than just the US, though granted the US educational system might skew things a bit in a negative direction versus most other supposedly “Developed” Nations.
IMHO, in general very few people have to really think things through in their life or work and most people can live life in what’s pretty much an auto-pilot of habits most of which were picked up in childhood, teen and early adult years, and such people simply don’t have any “training” on figuring complex things out by themselves and will have trouble understanding complex subjects.
Further, the instructions for advanced domain stuff (for example Medicine and some kinds of Tech) are often riddled with domain specific language that people without a broader vocabulary won’t understand.
I’ve worked with sysadmins all over the world and I agree it’s not just a US problem. Lots of people will remember the exact sequence of steps to accomplish a task, but when something goes wrong they don’t know how to read what’s on screen and adapt to it.
That’s a tiny minority of people and an ultra-specific belief.
I would say that the prevalence of the belief in fairy stories being real (aka Religions, Cults and so on) would be a pretty good indication of just how common and widely spread the Comprehension Handicapped are all over the World.
This is a way broader phenomenon than just the US, though granted the US educational system might skew things a bit in a negative direction versus most other supposedly “Developed” Nations.
IMHO, in general very few people have to really think things through in their life or work and most people can live life in what’s pretty much an auto-pilot of habits most of which were picked up in childhood, teen and early adult years, and such people simply don’t have any “training” on figuring complex things out by themselves and will have trouble understanding complex subjects.
Further, the instructions for advanced domain stuff (for example Medicine and some kinds of Tech) are often riddled with domain specific language that people without a broader vocabulary won’t understand.
I’ve worked with sysadmins all over the world and I agree it’s not just a US problem. Lots of people will remember the exact sequence of steps to accomplish a task, but when something goes wrong they don’t know how to read what’s on screen and adapt to it.
Which other country believes Earth is Flat?
That’s a tiny minority of people and an ultra-specific belief.
I would say that the prevalence of the belief in fairy stories being real (aka Religions, Cults and so on) would be a pretty good indication of just how common and widely spread the Comprehension Handicapped are all over the World.