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?