Have you ever tried to explain something to someone, and failed utterly?
One time I gave a helicopter ride to a friend of a friend. It was in an R22, which is very cramped with the doors on; and it’s much more fun to fly with them off anyway. It was FOAF’s first helicopter ride, and he was a bit nervous. I behaved myself. When we landed my former instructor asked FOAF how he liked it. ‘It scared me White!’ he said. ‘But it was fun! I was a little worried about falling out when we turned.’ I’m pretty sure I’d explained about ‘centrifugal force’, and why when we’re in a bank he’s actually being pressed into his seat and not toward the door, but I guess I didn’t explain it right. I tried again, and he still seemed uneasy (after we were chatting with Jack). Jack said to FOAF, ‘You ever tie a rope onto a bucket of water and swing it over your head, and the water doesn’t fall out?’ (FOAF had.) ‘Same thing.’ ‘OH! I get it!’ Why didn’t I think of that? :smack:
The other day my boss asked me about how we send data over a web-based FTP. We can choose to send it as ASCII or as Binary. The page we use (which is not ours, of course) had a toggle button on it. It’s supposed to say ‘Set ASCII’ when we are in Binary mode. The recipient changed the page so that it has two check boxes on it, so you can check ASCII or you can check Binary. The boss had assumed we’d been sending in ASCII because the page previously said ‘Set ASCII’. I told her that when you’re in Binary mode the button says ‘Set ASCII’ so that you can set it (change it) to ASCII if you want – but it’s currently Binary. I said that if we’d been sending in ASCII, the button would say ‘Set Binary’. The recipient changed to the check-boxes to make it less confusing. After the change, the boss checked the ASCII box because she thought we were supposed to send that way. But she was getting complaints about improperly-sent files so she asked me. She believes that the Binary box needs to be checked, but I still don’t think I explained the concept of the old toggle button well enough.
Oh God! I am the technical geek programmer in my office and a couple of girls work in the office who can just use Word and Excel. If I try to explain anything of what I am doing, it just goes over like a lead balloon – even though i am pretty good at explaining technical subjects to laymen. I just cannot win in trying to explain anything so i have pretty much just given up. One of the girls will just start spouting random words, technical terms and stuff at me indicating that what she is receiving is just gobbledygook. :sigh: I really don’t think she wants to understand is the problem. But I really hate not being able to talk about what i am doing sometimes – every once in a while you need to talk a problem out, but it does no good if the other side of the conversation is totally in mystery about what you are saying!
I work in a Japanese grill. We had a Brazilian 2nd generation Japanese come in a few nights ago. He spoke semi-fluent Japanese. I speak semi-fluent Japanese. Although I thought everything was fine, apparently I was unable to explain that you are not allowed to substitute salmon for shrimp in the special. When he ordered salmon, I foolishly assumed he forgot to mention it in his earlier order. When the bill came, he complained, and we had to comp him for the salmon. I caught hell from my manager for this.
I’d be afraid in a helicopter like that, too, Surely they created the doors for a reason. And, anyways, even on a roller coaster, you still feel scared, knowing you won’t fall out. That’s kinda the point.
I watched an amazing failure of one fellow trying to explain to another what principle component analysis was. The other fellow would say, “OK, I think I see, what you’re saying is…” and then explain linear regression. The first one would say, “No, that isn’t quite it…”, and try a different approach, and they would go back and forth, until the second one got exasperated and concluded the first one didn’t know what he was talking about.
And I know what the other side feels like too. One time a math buff explained to me how we know that rational and irrational numbers alternate along the continuum of all numbers. I could just barely follow. I mean, I got it, but if my nose tickled for a moment I’d lose it, and he’d help me get back on top of it, and I could just barely barely stay with it.
Yesterday I had to have a chest x-ray. From the large outer waiting area the technician took groups of three patients to a waiting area, explained to each what was required, and instructed us to then wait again on the chairs.
Of course, for a chest x-ray I had to remove everything above the waist and put a gown on - then return and wait in a chair. I was aware that an older gentleman next to me was staring at me - I ignored him.
I was called for my x-ray - then returned to redress and noted the older man had been taken into a room and his clothing (socks, underwear, pants, etc) were hanging on a hook in the change room.
From the x-ray room I heard the technician say, “Sir - I need an x-ray of your hand, you didn’t have to take all your clothes off for that”.
I’ve run into that “toggle button” bit before, and in my opinion it’s a crappy design. :mad:
Doesn’t tell you what you’re currently doing (you have to know that you’re currently in something called “binary”–whatever that is), and utterly confusing to explain to the neophyte (as you found out). Far far better to have two checkboxes, one for “Ascii” and one for “binary”, with a bit of software so they can’t both be checked at one time.
I agree labeling a toggle with one state is bad design. In fact, either state you name it with it’s bad design, for the reason that either one kind of makes sense.
There’s a similar problem in industrial design. Some people think the big red stop button should light up when the machine is going, and some think it should light up when the machine stops. Does light indicate “running” or “this control is active”? I believe this got resolved one way or the other, but now I can’t goddam remember which.
I tried to explain the difference between a standing person firing (some projectile) at a target vs. riding a bike or motorcycle and firing at a target–that if they were fired at exactly the same point, the rider’s projectile would arrive first. Just didn’t work.
They had no problem with flashlights, though, and how in the same experiment the beams would hit the target at the same time.
