Some lessons can’t be explained — they have to be demonstrated.

When his mom insisted their new computer didn’t need all those messy cords, he unplugged everything to let her learn the hard way.

She was really happy until she noticed there was a big problem.

Read on for this amusing story of malicious compliance!

No cables? No problem.

When I was 12, my mom got an Apple ][+ computer.

I set it up for her after carefully reading all the manuals. Back then, manuals were actually useful and contained a lot of good information.

The computer had two external hard drives, a modem, a monitor, and a printer.

Everything was connected with various cables.

But this is the part his mother wasn’t a fan of.

My mom used it for a couple days and then said to me in an exasperated voice, “These cables are all over the place and it’s driving me crazy! Clean it up so there are no cables!”

I had explained to her several times that the cables were necessary, but she just wasn’t hearing it.

So he decided to show instead of tell.

OK, I unplugged every cable from every external piece of the computer system and put them in a box.

She walked into her den and said, “Now this is what it should have looked like from the beginning. Keep it this way from now on.”

But it didn’t take her long to catch on.

A few minutes later, she calls me back into the den. “The computer won’t turn on.”

“Of course,” I said, “there are no cables. There’s no way to get power to the computer and no way for the computer to talk to any of the other devices.”

This time, she let him do it the correct way.

She grumbled for a moment, but then had me reinstall everything so it worked.

Sometimes, to get people to understand a concept, you have to give them exactly what they ask for.

Sometimes experience makes the best teacher.

What did Reddit think?

Wires are ugly, but they’re there for a reason.

Even movie sets understand that wires are just part of the deal.

Computers really were a lot different back then.

From then on, she let her son handle all the tech.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.