OK, I know that human beings aren’t the most intelligent species of animal that the Good Lord put on this planet, but…
Today, I bought a new wireless keyboard to replace the one that I sent to the keyboard aferlife several months ago when it wouldn’t obey my commands. I’ve been making do with this cheap one that’s tethered to the machine…
So, I’m reading through the owner’s manual so I can figure out how to connect the thing up, install the software, etc. The booklet had very detailed instructions on how to install…
The batteries.
Huh?
I know that some people are on the ditzy side and might need to be reminded to put the batteries in their battery operated electronic gadgets, but really. Detailed step-by-step instructions on how to do it? Aren’t the little diagrams inside the battery compartment enough?
I just can’t fathom people being so deficient in cerebral capacity that they can’t figure out how to put batteries in their keyboards and mice on their own, without having it in the instruction manual.
I guess you haven’t heard about the guy, who bought a Winnebego. He was driving down the highway, put it on cruise control, doing 60 miles per hr. and then went to the back to make himself a cup of coffee. He crashed naturally.
He sued Winnebego (and WON, I might add) because the manual did NOT tell him he still had to steer the damned thing even on cruise control.
I know it seems like everyone should know things like this, but think about the people who have never used a computers (they really do exist), let alone a wireless keyboard.
They aren’t necessarily dumb (I mean, after all, they did just buy a computer with a wireless keyboard so they are broadening their knowledge base right there), just uninformed. So then they are gaining knowledge by reading the instruction manual and becoming less dumb in the process.
We should thank the writers of those manuals for helping fight against ignorance!
I have a shaker that is sugar and cinnamon mixed together. Even though the label has a big SUGAR AND CINNAMON on the front, there’s still an Ingredients list…and, wouldn’t you know it, my Sugar and Cinnamon is made up of Sugar…and Cinnamon.
Ingredients must be put on everything. No matter how dumb it seems. But it doesnt matter if you’ve ever used a computer before, battery insertion seems pretty standard over all things. Most likey, they just copied and pasted from a previous manual which had it.
Thea, as I recall, you work retail. I would think that your daily experiences in your job would answer your question. My retail job has led me conclude that people are not only “that dumb,” but they are dumber than most can even imagine.
I think it was George Carlin who said that imagine how smart the average Joe is, and realise that half the popilation is dumber then that.
Alternatively it could be included as safety in the litigation prone society that exists today. They could say they showed the correct way to put in the batteries and if some idiot in a million then manages to shock himself some how, they wouldnt be liable.
When my parents got their first VCR in 1990, they thought the remote was the cats meow. One day I came home and my Mom said “That remote is working anymore” Like it was my fault! I said" Are the batteries dead?" She said “Batteries” with a blank look on her face. Despite being nearly 50 andusing radios and the like most of her life it never occured to her that the remote ran off of batteries!
Even so, however, I see a propensity with computer geeks to assume that people unfamiliar with computers are necessarily dumb.
Would a brain surgeon call you dumb for not knowing how to perform surgery on the brain?
Domain-specific rote knowledge has nothing to do with intelligence. Intelligence may help one experiment and find the correct solution more quickly, but people become more risk-averse and unwilling to experiment the higher the cost of a potential mistake i.e. breaking a thousand-dollar computer or fucking up somebody’s brain.
The manual for my friend’s Chevy Blazer shows a sketch of a Blazer parked over a fire. The text reads something like, “Never park over fire.” I love that.
On a pack of Californian walnuts I bought last Christmas :- "remove shells before eating " . Of course there must be somebody around who has never eaten a nut before.
From the brain-fart department, I remember the first time my dad bought a stopwatch. All of a sudden one day it didn’t work. So he took it back to the store where he bought it and told the clerk it didn’t work.
Tapioca Dextrin,
If you plug the adapter into the radio, then wal,l there will be a load on the adapter, so, when you plug it into the wall outlet, there is a complete circuit allowing you to be shocked by the exposed blade contacts of the plug due to a current arc.
If, OTOH, you follow the directions, there is no complete circuit in the adapter, no current through the blades and you are less likely to be electrocuted. The power pin of the adapter is designed to make it more or less impossible for the user to bridge the contacts while inserting it into the radio.
It’s basically playing homage to the inherently unsafe design of standard wall plugs. You might have noticed that your computer’s cord has a different type of plug on the back with a plastic shroud that shields your tender conductive flesh prior to completion of the circuit.
Of course, I don’t recall ever being shocked by a regular plug, so I’m not sure how much one order of operations increases the risk v. the other.