Thomas Homer Dixon speaks of the ingenuity gap. That growing
distance between the complex world in which we live and our natural ability to
deal with it. It’s a compelling
argument.
I’ve spent several of the last few weeks on planes. Can’t
help wonder when someone will come up with a cellotape solution to the
international expectation setting clause of ‘bag will not inflate’... perhaps design another bag or hope someone
bridges the gap with some ingenuity.
Here’s some evidence to make you smile as it did me; evidence of genius at work.
See attached shot
from my local off licence.
I guess the owner got so tired of repeating herself time and
again the request for customers to hang on until the machine WAS ready that she
stuck the sticker on instead. It took
less than a minute of her time and has made her life at the till easier.
The designers of the chip and pin machine spent
£millions in its development yet over look the insight that people do follow
machines in a certain way despite being asked to do other actions...
