Comments on: I See Dumb People!

By: Ryan Healy

Ryan Healy — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:20:03 +0000

Stacy - I think it's got to be partially an American thing.

We're always shortening words, using slang... sacrificing specificity for generality. The same thing happens when we call a tissue a "Kleenex" or a browser "Internet Explorer."

It's mental laziness. Americans are good at that. :-)

Ryan

By: Ryan Healy

Ryan Healy — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:16:54 +0000

You said: "I'm sure some people just tweet a whole heap of whatever phrases they see in that box so they'll get some traffic."

I've seen the same exact thing where a person pumps out 20 or 40 tweets all using the same trending topic hash tag. One or two tweets, okay. But dozens of them would have me hitting the unfollow button fast. :-)

Ryan

By: Stacy

Stacy — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 06:18:47 +0000

As someone who has worked tech support for 10 years, I'm not surprised. I was constantly having to explain what a browser was. I finally gave up and just started telling people to open Internet Explorer instead. Most of them got that.

By: CrystalsQuest

CrystalsQuest — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:32:59 +0000

Ryan, I've seen the same thing on twitter with trending topics - I'm sure some people just tweet a whole heap of whatever phrases they see in that box so they'll get some traffic. No idea if it works for them - I certainly wouldn't subscribe to follow that rubbish.

I love John's seamstress example with the mouse - and I've got another one for you. A good friend of mine bought her mother a computer, set it up for her, had it all running properly, but kept getting calls that the mouse would only work side to side, it wouldn't work up and down. After several attempts to fix it over the phone, she went over to check out the problem.

The mouse worked fine horizontally, but when it was raised from the desk (up) and lowered to it again (down) it did nothing.

So yes, I agree with you Ryan, it's not always stupidity. It's often just unfamiliarity. Even the smartest among us have things we're "dumb" at - it's too specialised a world for it to be possible to be familiar with everything.

By: Ryan Healy

Ryan Healy — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:24:05 +0000

You're welcome, Ian. Thanks for dropping by and checking out my blog. :-)

Ryan

By: Ryan Healy

Ryan Healy — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:23:29 +0000

I can't believe most people think Google and Yahoo are browsers... probably explains (to a degree) why Google dominates search.

"Google is my browser!"

You know what's even harder to explain? FTP.

Trying to explain that over the phone is damn near impossible.

Ryan

By: Michel Fortin

Michel Fortin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:58:25 +0000

I've posted this on our blog, but it's relevant here.

Google is revealing how people are ignorant.

Less than 8% of people surveyed by Google themselves knew what a "browser" is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4MwTvtyrUQ

And now they expect people to know the difference between a website and Sidewiki???

By: Colin

Colin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:14:19 +0000

:) I think that's a good indicator of greatness… when people start attributing quotes you never said to you.

By: Colin

Colin — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:12:34 +0000

Yes, I know… my winky emoticon wasn't sarcastic enough, I guess.

By: Ryan Healy

Ryan Healy — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:33:20 +0000

Thank you, Heidi. And you bring up a great point: there are many non-English speaking buyers and plain language is much easier for them to understand.

Ryan