Process Vs Prejudice


A mouse in a clockwork puzzle.

I recently read an interesting article about Accountability Sinks. In it, the author argues that part of the reason for having business processes is that they diffuse accountability. Every one of us has tried to have an argument with an employee of a big company, and it always goes like this: the human being you are speaking to is only allowed to follow a set of processes and rules that pass on …

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What are "unusual characters"


Screenshot of a form validation error - Your first name must have at least two letters and no unusual characters.

The world is a complex place. It is tempting to enforce simplicity upon it to make things easier for computers. Gender is a boolean, no one is older than 99, all text flows left to right, and names are always in English. That makes it nice and easy for us to write computer systems - and who cares if it is dehumanising? Recently, I tried to register with phone company EE. When someone asks for…

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