I'm not going to say that you're wrong to want to hire a person like that, but I will say that most people who hire "assistants" don't expect them to coordinate password databases with contractors or spin up EC2 instances.
I can see why it would be particularly hard to hire the kind of assistant you seem to be looking for.
Correct, most people don't do this but there's a class of 'assistant' where technical skills are worth more than secretarial skills.
For example, research assistants are expected to help with the tedium of econmetric studies (e.g. performing regressions, collecting data, etc.) and this requires at least a masters level education.
Right, but you don't call those 'assistants', they're professional staff. 'Assistant' = title inflated way of saying 'secretary'. Who with a master's degree wants to have 'assistant' on their business card, unless it's very clear that it's a short stepping stone towards becoming whatever is after the 'assistant'?
From the writings others who have advocated assistants, like Tim Ferris, it seemed possible to find someone with a modicum of technical ability, but who also could generally "Get Things Done."
I may have a skewed view of what constitutes trivial technical things.
I may have a skewed view of what constitutes trivial technical things.
I think perhaps you are right :)
System Admin and Office Admin are distinct jobs. You should expect an office admin (ie, an assistant) to work out how to use your phone system (but not to install it) or to drive Excel and your payroll system.
I can see why it would be particularly hard to hire the kind of assistant you seem to be looking for.