Why Things Don't Work

       Much of what follows may simply be the rantings of an old man who is challenged by today’s technology. Yet I suspect that there is a fundamental condition of society that underlies why so many things don’t work as promised. That condition is this; in our desire to make things simple and easy, we created incredibly complex programs that exclude the element of common sense. Let me give two recent examples.

     Last week I shared that my wife, Alenda, and I spent a few hours in the emergency room. On the wall was a sign inviting us to complement our care person or care team if we felt that appropriate. All we had to do was scan in a QR code and then follow the instructions. We did indeed have very good care, so I (being very proud of knowing how to scan in the code) proceeded to do so. Immediately I was asked to choose if I wanted to affirm a single person or the entire team. As we had been served by several people, all in a courteous and seemingly competent manner, I selected the entire team option. The screen then asked me for the name of the team, with a little note that this was a mandatory field to proceed.

     At this point I looked around the room for an indication of the name of our care team. Finding none, I waited until one of the team returned, and when she did, I asked her to tell me the name of the team. She looked puzzled, thought a minute, and then said “I have no idea. I don’t think we have a name.” I pondered that for a moment and then asked for her name. She gave it to me, and I went back and changed my choice to single person. Then I entered her name and asked her to tell the others that all of them were very good. My point is that someone took a lot of time to design a website and QR code to make it easy for patients and their family to compliment the caregivers but never gave any consideration to naming the teams. It seems like common sense was missing in the situation.

     This morning Alenda (now mostly recovered, but not completely) and I stopped at Home Depot to get a propane gas tank re-filled. A large sign proclaimed a “Self-Serve, 24/7” option. Once again, ubiquitous QR code came into play. The instructions told us to scan it and then follow the steps on the screen. We scanned the code, on both her phone and mine, but nothing happened. We then went inside and talked to a clerk, who cheerfully stated “Oh that hasn’t worked in weeks.” One would think someone at Home Depot would have changed the signage, but apparently not. That would have involved common sense. 

     I could rant and rave with other stories, but you get my point. The benefits of wonderful and creative technology are sometimes negated by no one considering how human beings are going to use it. I’m sure that AI will eventually solve this. Or maybe not.