Systemic failure In our modern life, we have to learn a lot of systems.Like, all supermarkets follow a system of psychology and convenience, all cars follow a system of ergonomics, all street signs follow a system of utilitarian design (I love street signs).And most of the systems we have to use have their own ins and outs.They have shortcuts, quirks and hidden features.I know many shortcuts for my pc, but I get lost at IKEA.A friend of mine is fluent in ikea, you can send her to any store and she will find very quick routes to any item.Even money is becoming a really tricky system now with crypto currencies on the rise.A city is so rigid in its systemic nature that there are no undedicated spaces anywhere except maybe parks.
The sidewalk is for walking only, the street is for driving only.As soon as you enter any space that has their doors open your options are limited to spending money in a certain way: Have drinks, shop something, sit down and watch something… If you have time to spare, in most cities you can either walk around all of the time, sit in a park or you’ll have to spend money.
And all of these systems have something in common: they are built by human minds.
You know, the master minds that made sending a mail so complicated that old people have to take two weeks to learn it.We want to make everything better, but somehow it keeps getting more and more complicated.
We have to get used to it I guess, but I can tell you from the PC rabbit hole’s perspective: You can get a little better at using these man made systems, but I’m afraid you will not learn anything of real value.I wrote a piece about what I’ve learned from playing chess.I’ve spent many many many more hours with macOS and windows than with chess and I can’t think of anything valuable they’ve taught me.The best you can get out of all the human made utility systems is that you will get something done and can turn away.
But in the worst case, they actually make you shut off your brain.I’ve been to a store to pick up a modem.The store was empty, but a sales lady quickly rushed up to me to inform me that I had to take a number.If you spend any amount of time thinking about that you will go insane… and these kind of rules are emerging everywhere now.
Systemic thinking is a very important part of design.
I can’t shake the feeling that sometimes the best decision would be not to touch something at all or at least collect good data before you do anything.Better have an inefficient system that’s reliable and brings people together than one that is efficient, but isolating and inflexible.In the end we’re striving from interacting with each other, not just checking boxes all of the time..