The Workaround
We all have them, right?
When we can’t figure out how to do something, but it simply has to be done, we make do, we work around it. Designers, like those who designed my stupid front door (more on that later), have such faith in their product that they don’t realize that people who can’t use their product will avoid it, work around it.
I was speaking to a lovely boomer the other day who told me that she could learn anything about home improvement on Youtube, and I agree. People are so generous with their time and knowledge, and it’s perfect for the workaround when instructions lack detail.
For one example, Mr. X and I have given in to curiosity and just started using one of the many meal kits available. We have spawned and our issue is about as iffy about most vegetables as any small child, so we decided to go with the most kid friendly option we perceived out there- Martha Stewart and Marley Spoon. I have developed a kind of terrified fascination with Martha ever since I watched her be absolutely thrilled to discover on some DNA show that she’s probably related to Ghengis Khan. This fascination solidified after she became besties with Snoop Dogg, a man I have often thought could probably rule the world (or at least a small country) if he weren’t quite so very high. Their friendship means that they will probably run a small, possibly scary, probably very high country together.
I digress.
Anyway, Martha, in her wisdom, told me to brown some butter to make this recipe. She kind of told me how-ish, but the recipe card is only so big, and she knows I have internet access if I ordered her meal kit. I already feel guilty for not making stunning quilts from the totally usable cotton batting she sends in the 100% recyclable package (I’M SORRY AND IF YOU MAKE QUILTS YOU CAN TOTALLY HAVE IT PLEASE TAKE IT THE GUILT IS KILLING ME), so I put on my big girl pants and watch a charming video on youtube from someone calling themselves Sugar Geek and I end up making something very dangerous to know how to make and apply to pasta and apparently frosting and just about anything you bake. Thanks to this video, I did well, but I need to forget that I know how to do this except on special occasions or in very tiny amounts shared by many people.
My point is, we had a lovely meal designed by an evil genius, because we were bored, tech savvy enough and game for an adventure as long as it didn’t involve endives. I’m still on the fence about how I’m going to recycle all the packaging, and that was a major selling point for me when we were choosing the kit. I may have been aspirational at the time, but I honestly didn’t know that the recycling was going to involve pressure to start another skilled hobby. I should have known, given the source.
For another example, I’ve got a front door with an amazing bolt lock. Top of the line, amazing lock. It’s a triple-bolt situation. Once the triple-bolt is engaged, it’s virtually impossible to break down. The only thing is, in order to engage the lock, you have to listen for a particular sound as you throw your weight into the door, and know exactly how to test the door to make sure it’s locked. I could lock it, as could my husband, but my husband’s parents, who lived with us at the time, could not, due to some decreased strength. I once asked a locksmith how much it would cost to replace the door with a standard deadbolt and he looked at me like I was insane. He said that the door was the safest you could buy. I told him that if the door is so hard to lock that some members of my family can’t manage to lock it, I might as well have no lock at all. I see this kind of problem in internet security all the time. If I only need your service once every six months and your website requires a baroque set of rules that you can only know when you change your password, guess which password I’m changing every six months?
Why do we choose bad, or the same passwords for too many logins? It’s the door situation all over again. Overly complicated security can often mean poor security hygiene on the users’ part.