Do you read the instructions?

Me too! I read about half way then dive in!!! 6 months later I return to the instructions to find out if I’ve broken it. ?

Always! Otherwise I’m bound to do it all wrong, utter foul curses and have to start again.

From experience it’s blokes who are less likely to read or follow instructions - too macho to need anyone else to tell them how to work whatever it is.

Yes, I read the instructions. I agree that most men don't read them.

Yes I read instructions

We have a family saying when trying to use something new:
"If all else fails, read the instructions."

Yes. I read the instructions but usually misinterpret them.

My husband was once assembling some kit-set furniture, not very well and ignoring the guidelines which came with it.

I said, 'Read the instructions before you break it.'

In speech there was no comma after that third word and he took it that I was assuming the inevitable worst.

I rarely read instructions, I think I have a man's brain!
(Not meant to be a sexist comment, before anyone takes offense.)

Whenever we got new IT equipment in school, I just ripped open the boxes and delved right in, desperate to get it up and running. It usually worked out well.
I'm intuitive when it comes to technology and like to do things logically.

On the other hand, my DH likes to read the instructions first and then I take over.

I'm an instruction booklet reader, my husband isn't. He's recently discovered that the extractor has four speeds (not two) and that the light can be dimmed. It's thirteen years old and I thought it was time to tell him.

V3ra are we related?

If we have any technical stuff in our house (computer, TV, etc), our eldest son sorts it out and sets it up/fixes it.

Anything else - flat-pack furniture, gadgets - my husband or son does it.

Electrical or cars - my husband does them.

I know my capabilities - and they are limited

I have heard it said - woman read the instruction to find out what to do, and men read the instruction to find out where they went wrong

True in this house.

We have just taken delivery of a blood pressure monitor. My husband got as far as setting up the date and time on it, then dived straight in to try and use it.

Needless to say, it returned an error message. He's now reading the intructions lol

Always, DH never. Many a times he's got to the line: 'Do Not' too late!

Depends... if it for some type of machine I have previously had experience with, for instance a new washing machine, I could get away with assuming to know how to operate it.
I may delve into the manual in case there was some new benefit that I hadn't used before, or was specific to that machine.

I love the delay start on my oven especially as a working woman. Pop in a chicken in the morning, and set the delay start to 3pm. Nice roast chicken at dinner time! However I am amazed at the amount of people that aren't even aware their oven can do this!

My husband drives me mad because he reads every last word of instructions before he even get things out of the box.

I, on the other hand don't!

Same here Grannybags, my husband is a stickler for instructions. I'm the opposite and have less patience.

Instructions in the form of diagrams defeat me. I much prefer the written word, as long as it's in standard English. In the past, translations from, say, Japanese, have proved more amusing than informative.

No - they literally make no sense. I think they’re all written by a bloke in Uzbekistan and then translated from there by other men. It drives DH mad that I don’t read them - he says I need to treat them as helpful things rather than a manifestation of patriarchal oppression.

SirChenjin

I'm no good with diagrams either annodomini much the same with maps. Give me a written explanation any time.

I like diagrams and have built really complex items from them.

Always read the instructions, which seem very complicated, follow them to the letter the first time, then suddenly realise they are really easy, and don't look at the book again! All has gone ok. (so far.....)

I'm an obsessive reader of instructions; sometimes I read them twice before I get the item out of the box. I keep the instructions in a concertina file, too, just in case I need to refer to them in the future.
Whaddya mean, I should get a life?

Scribbles, we have a drawer will all the little booklets. I staple the store receipt to the cover, so i know when i purchased the item. Hubby went through the drawer the other day looking for something and we were amazed at some of the long-past appliances that we still had booklets for! Mind you, I gave away a very old deep fryer, and was able to give the instruction booklet with it.

I do the same, Canadian Gran. And I used to ditch receipts and paperwork when the products were out of guarantee but now I keep them until we no longer have that product. Some years back, we had to make an insurance claim for carpet and the assessor wanted to check the quality of the existing carpet to help decide how much we could spend on the replacement. It made me realise we need the paperwork way longer than we think.