Systems
Systems don’t serve people, people comply with systems.
Doubt this at your own peril. Don’t believe me? Just think about the world you already live in. When you call to resolve an issue with almost any company, you are not met with a lovely human voice. Your call is routed into a “System”, where you are assured that your call is very important. Then, after many minutes, or hours, of being bounced around, cut off, calling back, being bounced some more, you hang up in utter frustration.
Think about the Healthcare “System”. It is more difficult, and expensive, than ever to access care. There is a system for registering, scheduling, providing payment information, etc., that leaves you feeling more ill than when you first called. Then you get to deal with the system telling you your claim has been rejected, your diagnosis doesn’t qualify and you’ll have to pay out-of-pocket. But, your insurance company does appreciate your business. If stress kills then the Healthcare “System” is a serial murderer.
How often are we faced with the oh so impersonal, “I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do about it, that’s just how the system works.”?
The technology has not, in fact, made our lives easier, it has given us a whole new level of system-fueled frustration to deal with. And, it’s even worse than that. The ‘system” has its hand deep in your pocket. The cost of all these systems that don’t serve you is buried in the prices of the products and services that you buy. On top of all that, the technocrats are pushing us ever closer to a “cashless system”, wherein you basically hand over around 3% of your income while they process every purchase that you make.
I suppose the really big issue here is the lack of choice. If you want electricity, clean water, television, cell phones, transportation, healthcare, etc. you have increasingly limited options. In the case of utilities, most people have no choices. Having only one provider means no competition and no incentive to perform. You are trapped using their systems. Likewise, with the corporate takeover of almost everything, there are limited options for sourcing many goods and services. You are then obliged to submit yourself to those systems.
As someone who spent 30+ years designing complex systems, I can tell you that they are designed to work in a certain manner. They expect certain inputs, in predefined formats. They have minimum requirements. You either provide the data they want or you get no service. Most systems are not great at managing variations to their internal processes.
Supposedly, if we are to believe the hype, newer AI-based systems will be far better at these tasks. I strongly suspect, knowing the structure and algorithmic design strategies of Large Language Model AI systems, that this level of positive interaction is far off. Even if it is achieved, these systems still “work” for the companies that designed them, not for the customers. The companies are laser focused on profits. Complaint systems, I’m sorry “Customer Concern Systems”, will still be a labyrinth and resolving denied healthcare claims will still be frustrating. The cashless, we’re-taking-3%-of-your-money, systems will march forward. If we’re lucky it will only be 3%
Remember…
Systems don’t serve people, people comply with systems.