Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/251530
FEBRUARY 2014 16 THE JOURNAL BY GEORGE PORTER SERVICE & SET-UP How About Some Directions for the Directions? Not so long ago I bought a new computer. Why I do these things to myself I don't know. The very first computer I owned twenty five years ago vastly exceeded my ability to use all of its capabilities, and still does, so you can only imagine how far I am behind this Pentium 4000; multi-gig; faster than light; memory that will exceed the known body of knowledge in the universe; i.e. a magic box. I do not know how it works and I never will. This contraption is truly complicated and be- yond the ability of 99% of the population of the planet to really know what is going on inside that plastic box. I have learned to use the thing (sort of), but I could never explain to anyone how electricity turns into words and pictures. I suppose if I went to school on the machine for a few years I would be a lot smarter about it, but I have other things to do, and to tell the truth, I don't really care as long as it works and gives me what I want. What if you made something as complicated as a computer with wires running everywhere and had the capability of never working at all? What if you did just one tiny wrong keystroke or plugged in something with the wrong cable and destroyed the machine? How many customers would you confuse and then have them call you on your service line? You might need three technicians for each computer sold with eight hour shifts around the clock. Now sell millions of these computers to people who can't program the average alarm clock and watch what hap- pens, insanity and chaos!! Yet... Dell, HP, IBM and many others do this all day and night and would love to do it more!! How can you sell something to the public so prone to trouble and survive, maybe even thrive? It's easy; you just give very good directions to the owner. The secret to success in the computer world is not necessarily how good your electronics are but how good your direc- tions are! Directions make things work and re- ally good directions make things work great. Things that work great are not only worth more because more people want them; they also have low service costs because of fewer complaints. The first thing I saw when I opened the box with the computer in it was a very large folded up poster type instruction sheet. It said "STOP" in huge red letters. Then it said before you do one more thing… read these "quick set- up directions". It said this to me, the owner of the product, not the store where I bought it or the UPS guy who brought it. There were 7 or 8 easy steps and all the connections were color- coded. You would have to be, well... "im- paired" to not get this right the very first time. I cranked it up and it worked! My computer does things for me now and I like it, simple as that! That "quick set-up sheet" is all I have used. My computer did come with a big fat book with lots of digital equations in it along with thou- sands of initials and strange words for things that I know nothing about. My favorite is twain. "Twain" stands for "Technology without an In- teresting Name" (I swear to you that I am not making this up) It has something to do with printers and scanners, I think. A couple of trips to the "fat book" and it went on the shelf, forever, the people who wrote it and can read it are not like you and me. Directions are very important but it seems to matter who you give them to as well. For in- stance, what if Gateway Computer decided to not put the quick set-up sheet in the box and just inserted the note "see your dealer"? Gate- way has many factory stores and people get the computers there and the store does help you a lot, but... They do not come to your house and hold your hand and if every sale required a long phone call to get the thing to run it would tie up the whole sales force all day. What if Gateway only gave directions to their dealers and said, here, you deal with the people, let me know when you want more computers! Probably the local office would be getting lots of calls directly from customers and expenses would go up. Not informing the customer would KILL the computer industry. There is even competition for the chance to inform the consumer, how about local commu- nity colleges, internet training, training pro- grams on CD's and so forth. Consumers actually are actually willing to pay for this in- formation! There is an entire industry based on training the consumer on how to use the com- puter they get from someone else. Why? Be- cause people need computers, you just can't get along very well without them these days. They are very helpful and entertaining and people want them, but only when they work and are not too much trouble. Who do you suppose helps support this com- puter knowledge industry? It is the computer manufacturing industry itself of course. They have figured out that the more people know about computers, the more people will buy them, and it seems to work pretty well. The dot com industry has spawned more millionaires than any other industry in recent history, all based on people getting comfortable with computers. \ 21