What is Adminext?

“When you know what you want — let the Adminext system support you deliver it.”

I am fascinated by how technology goes forward and develops. There is huge progress having been made in individual components’ performance. Sofware engineering is on a whole new level nowadays.

The apps, hardware and the operating system play together in making an experience that we consume.

The prevalence of being employed in the technology industry has risen steadily. Even though there are slumps in demand at times, most likely IT, technology and services around it are going to be in rather significant demand for well into the future.

I have worked it IT for two decades in roles from Software developer, to software testing and also a good portion in IT Support roles.

This is a sketch of what I like to call Adminext. It is just a working name for making technology more smooth for the users.

Going with Flow

Typically in a daily scenario, when we use computers, we would like to just go with the flow. Unhindered and par excellence use requires stability of the whole system.

Skills

Using digital equipment and systems also requires some skills. IT skills can roughly be thought of as 2 separate classes: those that are done by IT agents (administrators and technicians), and those skills of everyman —we “users”.

Our 5 needs from digital products

I’ve found that people want somewhat 5 things in business IT:

• uninterrupted flow in IT use — do not let the machine stand in your way
• no showstoppers due to having to wait for things (for app downloads, installations, computer reboots, or other downtime)
• clear understanding of what our choices do — if forced to do choosing or let’s say, a Configuration choice / Settings choice in an app. Some best apps have actually hidden a lot of the details from us, and these apps simply work in a way that suits the case and our desires.
• state of the UX (UI) — what is the machine “thinking”. More about this below!
• avoiding unnecessary reading of explanations — those that actually don’t much make sense in the context of daily operations. (Think: TOS — terms of service when you are starting to use a new app). Live fast, finish first. Or something like this? 😉Well, anyways point being: no one is excited about a mile-long jargon lingo text.

These needs are based on our cognition, the brain. We can only process so much at one time. And when we are on a mission mode, doing a task — we just like to get it done.

When we work with any system - be it driving a car, using professional anaesthetic devices and procedures in hospitals as a trained nurse; or playing a game on a Playstation console — there is this somewhat ephemeral need for a feeling of flow and control. Flow is engagement, staying on tracks, feeling that the system supports you, and doesn’t work against you!

Flow was first explicated by psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, and written about in a 1990 book called “Flow — The Psychology of Optimal Experience”. Check it out, very interesting concept.

Core problems in fixing digital systems

Let’s start with the obvious: being scared of breaking something, if you touch the system. This is by far one of the most common things reported in the wild.

People vary a lot in this. Curiosity, energy levels, and how “serious” of a system we’re talking about, all these play into the function of fear level. It’s completely a different thing fixing a simple pedometer on your personal bicycle (low fear), than trying to fix something which really holds a lot of crucial data for you, your company, clients, or family.

Me having brought up literally by electronics and having a good grasp of the basics of digital electronics, computers, software and all that — still I know and respect the first reason. Fear is something that warns you internally. It’s an emotion.

Second: Annoyance. “Surely, like, in 2025 — how can we be dealing with this kind of… <BEEP>”. Know that one. Annoyance is a feeling that you should contain, and acknowledge. Keep to the facts, as hard as it sometimes is. Take a deep breath. The more content and analytical you are in fixing the system, usually better results follow. Stay focused.

When faced with a technical problem, there is often a feeling of frustration: “Why?!” Skip it. Deal with it. It’s called life. Things happen.

The next thing is more positive: we look for solutions.

Where? Usually, in a community (Facebook, Discord, you name it!), a relative, friend, or plain old ChatGPT / Google.

What happens is that we usually get some fix instructions. No. We get tons of these instructions. And we’re not quite sure how well they will work. In addition, these instructions need to be executed — put to real use. It’s not automatic. You rarely can just click on a action script button and have your computer run those set of instructions. (Besides, if you could — there’s some security issues that need to be checked to make it safe). Don’t click on random links in the Internet. Most of them will not fix your problems. They most likely will give all kind of scams or get-rich-schemes. Over 50% of antivirus software on the market is actually more malicious than useful.

Merely having a set of instructions on your hands, rarely fixes the problem.

What does Adminext do?

So far, it is work in progress. My idea is to make a support system for digital fixes. The search for fix, root cause analysis if applicable (might be hard!), choice of a fix (choosing a “recipe” I like to call it), and even the fix task execution, if possible — would all be automatic. At least so much so that the product is very useful. It saves time, headache, and first and foremost: keeps you in the flow!

So the nasty flow-breaking just doesn´t happen, or if it happens, it means minimal downtime to you.