Why do we have to know more about computers than cars?

Just after I posted “Erratic cellular settings” I thought about cars and problem solving.

Long ago I learned a little story about car problems that may have been older than me.

A car dealer gave his wife a new car.  She was delighted with it, but she complained that it ran erratically.  A mechanic checked it out and could find nothing wrong.  She brought it in again with the same result.  Finally, the head mechanic went out with her.

She started the car, pulled out the choke, and hung her purse from the choke.

Sometimes, you have to just be there to solve a user’s problem.  I found this out when a user couldn’t access a document because his computer terms didn’t the same meanings as others did.  I had to go to his house to understand the problem.  I found out the cause of an error in my own software when I saw a user print a document on his on printer.  I had assumed a negative number for a printer line would not get printed.  It worked fine on my Apple printer, but it didn’t work on his third party printer.

The problem with computers is that the designers expect their users to be expert car mechanics, masters of intricate analysis of problems.  But all the average user wants to do is touch a few buttons or type a few words to get his or her work done.  If their cars sputters when it should purr, they take it to a mechanic who often can diagnose the problem within an hour.  But if their devices sputter when they should purr, they are expected to put in hours trying to get enough information to get somebody to finally make a correction to the software (or tell them not to hang their purses on the menu bar).

My plaint about all this complexity is whatever happened to the “Computer for the Rest of Us” (The 1984 Apple Macintosh)?

Apple stores – efficiency over effectiveness?

CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer "were of the opinion that the stores didn’t generate enough revenues to justify their operating expenses."
http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/is-apples-retail-model-set-to-change-forever.html/
"Are Apple employees worried about their jobs?" , Aabha Rathee, Wall St. Cheat St., 2012-09-03

Is anybody really looking at the side effects of the stores even existing?  How many sales are there online because customers know they can go to an Apple Store for more direct help than online?

For example, if I buy a Macintosh online, buy an Apple Care contract, and something goes wrong, can I get timely help online.  Well, I bought one Mac from a local dealer, but took it to an Apple Store because of a problem.  The techie looked at it, gave me a quick fix, checked the battery, and replaced the battery at no charge.  Messrs. Cook and Browett, how many times are similar stories are there like this.  If Apple provides superior technical assistance, how do you measure the benefit to increased sales?  Apple customers pay a premium for superior service.  If you reduce that service, why should customers pay that premium?

It's like an auto dealer cuts back on the number of mechanics because they are not generating enough revenue.  Why aren't they generating enough revenue?  A very large portion of the dealer's customers have bought long-term service contracts; therefore, they pay little or nothing when they bring their cars in.  If the dealer's customers have to wait a long time for pre-paid service, are they going to be so willing to buy their next cars from the same dealer?

You can't run a business as a series of silos with no relation to all the other silos.  A business is more like a chain of gears.  You take one gear out and everything stops.