I’m not a community person. I say that without shame. It’s just how I’m wired. My energy is finite, my brain is protective of it, and most of my life has been spent in front of a screen solving problems nobody asked me to solve. I show up to things when I have to. I leave when I can. I’ve never been the person who joins committees or volunteers at events or posts in the neighborhood Facebook group.
So naturally, I’m starting a free tech help initiative in Springfield. Obviously.
The thing I keep seeing
I work in IT. I’ve been around technology my whole life. Building things, breaking things, figuring out how things work since I was twelve. I went to school for it. Got degrees in it. Taught classes in it. And the one constant across all of that is the gap between people who understand technology and people who need it to function in daily life.
That gap isn’t about intelligence. It’s about access. It’s about having someone you can ask who won’t make you feel stupid for asking.
I’ve watched people pay $200 to get a printer reconnected to WiFi. I’ve seen someone almost fall for a scam popup because they didn’t know those weren’t real warnings. I’ve talked to people who just need someone to sit with them for twenty minutes and explain where the setting is. But that twenty minutes doesn’t exist in their world, because every option costs money or dignity or both.
What FluxHelp is
FluxHelp is me offering what I already do for friends and family: tech help, no charge, no judgment, no “well actually.”
But here’s the part that matters to me. This isn’t just “hand me your laptop and I’ll fix it.” I mean, I’ll absolutely do that if that’s what you need. But I’d rather teach you what’s happening and why, so next time you can handle it yourself. Or at least know what questions to ask.
I actually taught college classes for a bit. C# and Android development. I liked the explaining part, but I’ll be honest, it left me frustrated. Most of the students were there because someone told them tech jobs pay well. They weren’t stuck. They weren’t struggling to access something. They were chasing a credential.
The people who actually need help with technology aren’t sitting in a classroom. They’re at home, staring at an error message, wondering if they broke something expensive. That’s who I want to talk to.
If you want me to walk you through what’s happening and why, I will. If you want me to just make the problem go away, I’ll do that too. Your call. The goal is that you leave knowing more than when you showed up, but only if that’s what you want.
Setup, troubleshooting, “which laptop should I buy,” “my email is doing something weird,” “I think I clicked on something I shouldn’t have.” If it’s tech and you need help, that’s what this is for.
Why I’m doing this
I’d love to say I had a noble awakening, but the truth is simpler than that. I recently started showing up to things. A group at the GLO Center, some local events. Something shifted. Being around people who are genuinely trying to build something in this community made me realize I’d been sitting on skills that could actually help someone.
Not in a career way. Not in a “building my brand” way. In a “my neighbor needs help with their phone and I know how to fix it” way.
I’m also running an experiment on myself. I have ADHD, and I’ve spent most of my life either fighting my brain or trying to numb it into compliance. Right now I’m trying something different. I’m building systems and habits that work with how I think instead of against it. I use AI tools to help me manage the friction points, and yes, one of those tools helped me write this post. Using AI to reduce friction is kind of the whole thesis, so it felt dishonest not to mention it.
Part of this experiment is finding out whether I can show up consistently for other people when historically I’ve struggled to show up for anything that isn’t my current hyperfocus. FluxHelp is me testing that in public. If it works, people get free tech help and I grow as a person. If it doesn’t, at least I tried something real instead of just thinking about it for six months and then moving on to a new hobby.
Who this is for
Anyone in Springfield, Missouri who needs tech help and doesn’t know where to turn. That’s it. No income requirements, no forms to fill out, no qualifying questions. If your answer to “who do I ask about this tech problem” is currently “nobody, I guess,” then this is for you.
If you’re reading this and thinking “I don’t need this but I know someone who does,” that’s who this is really for. The person who won’t Google “free tech help” because they don’t even know that’s a thing someone would offer. Share this with them.
How to reach out
Head to fluxmeridian.com/fluxhelp and fill out the contact form. Tell me what’s going on, as much or as little as you want. I’ll get back to you and we’ll figure it out together.
No catch. No upsell. No “free consultation” that turns into a pitch for a protection plan. Just help.
I’m not a community person. But I know things that are useful, I spent years learning how to teach them, and there are people nearby who need exactly that. Worst case scenario, I become slightly more sociable. Springfield can hold me to that.