I Is Stupid

I tried to do a search for a video on Youtube, but with my “Firestick” on the tv. I was looking for a short half hour video - “Didi - The North Face” - which a friend had recommended. And which I recommend too.

As I typed out the letters - not with a keypad but that much slower way, when you laboriously click across to find each letter one at a time - you’ll know this - suggestions began to appear in a side panel.

And you’d think that when the “i'“ in Didi came up that my choice would appear somewhere in that panel. Not many programmes beginning with the word “Didi” you’d imagine. But no. I kept getting suggestions that started with the word “Did”. Because, presumably, the algorithms were assuming that I couldn’t spell, or that I’d mistyped and that I wouldn’t notice.

This is perhaps understandable for the first couple of letters. But it carried on through, till I’d typed out the whole title. And still the suggestion list was full of “Did” titles. No sign of the actual title I was looking for. And so I pressed the search button at the end and finally the title came up.

This might seem like a small thing. But it ain’t. Because the assumption here was not that I, the user, knew what I was doing, or would notice my mistake. The assumption was that I Is Stupid.

Now I know what you’re thinking and that’s very naughty of you. Even if that thought may have some truth contained within! But still…it’s a very bad starting point for any interaction to begin with that kind of assumption.

There’s a lot of it around these days though. Whether it be on search engines, help lines, customer services, staff meetings, political declarations, or whatever. And we do it to each other too.

Here’s the message. Take it or leave it…… I’m not as dumb as I look.

And I’m pretty sure you aren’t either. So why don’t we start pretending, for the sake of argument, that we’re all capable, competent, smart, human beings.

Maybe we’ll find ourselves pleasantly surprised when we take that leap of faith.