Don't Miss a Thing
Free Updates by Email

Enter your email address

preview

powered by FeedBlitz

RSS Feeds



By Twitter: @thisissethsblog

Search

Google
WWW SETH'S BLOG

SETH'S BOOKS

THE DIP BLOG by Seth Godin




All Marketers Are Liars Blog




Blog powered by TypePad
Member since 08/2003

« The six percent solution | Blog Home | Milton Glaser threw me out »

Putting the card in upside down

I bought gas for my car today and put the credit card in upside down. Took a few minutes in the snow to figure out what was going on.

But wait. Computers are close to free. Why should it be my job to put the card in right side up? Why can't the machine read the card in every direction?

Think of how often computers, the web, machines, voice mail systems and other devices require us to change our behavior to make it more convenient for the chip or the chip designer.

I think there's a huge opportunity in using massively redundant computer systems to allow humans to be stupid again.

Exhibit A: Why isn't backing up considered an automatic function too important to be left to the user?

MagTek - The Technology Behind The Transaction.

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d83451b31569e200d834582e4469e2

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Putting the card in upside down:

» Smart Machine = Dumb People from The Post Money Value
Yeah! Exactly. Another smart person, Seth Godin, talks about solving problems in his special style. [Read More]

» Stupid Robot Gas Pumps from Thinking by Peter Davidson
Last night I stopped to fill my gas tank before the price goes up again. I immediately noticed yet another stupid pay at the gas pump robot credit card reader. This one actually required a customer to insert their card [Read More]

« The six percent solution | Blog Home | Milton Glaser threw me out »