I think Jon Udell puts his finger right on the essential divide between people who provide support, and people who receive it:

The clash of these cognitive styles -- knowing how to do things versus knowing how to find out how to do things -- is a source of friction between IT folk and our clientele. From our perspective, it's annoying to be asked constantly to write down detailed step-by-step procedures. If we don't rely on them, why should anyone else need to?

From the perspective of the folks we support, on the other hand, it's equally annoying to have to figure things out. Why aren't things like turning off Smart Quotes just obvious?

Bridging that divide is the difference between an enjoyable support experience and an irritating one - which is also why really good support staff are hard to find - technical knowledge is only part of it.