It's been decided that the mechanical meters that have been donned by taxis and rickshaws since the time Nehru was the PM are to be phased out. I believe the main reason why the meters have not been replaced till now is quite basic and has a lot to do with human psychology.
When you sit in the taxi and the taxi driver extends his arm out of the window turns the meter thru 3 slots and brings it in the meter down position with that distinct clickud-clickud-clickud. That's what sets up the ride. That's when you feel... Oh yeah! I have hired this thing and now this machine runs as per my orders! It's just not the same when you have those push-button meters! You dont feel the same way. I'm saying this from personal experience.
Our life is almost filled with such instances where these weird and in most cases unnecessary mechanical sounds make us arrive at some seemingly logical conclusions to convince ourselves. Here's another example to prove my point!
ATMs. Have you noticed the sound that they make before they dispense the cash? Is that a really necessary thing? I mean... the modern day financial institutions have technology to transfer money from Bangalore to Glasgow via Brisbane in a matter of seconds and they cant make silent ATMs??
But it's again the thoughts that the person standing in front of the ATM has that have led to this in a way inefficient design. When the machine is making all those weird noises you just feel somoething is happening. The thud-thud-thud-thud noise goes a long way in convincing that now it's counting MY money! It just somehow makes you believe that you've got such a lot of money in your account that it actually takes time to count it.
Give me a break. What machine counts thud-thud-thud-thud.
But the banks have gone out of the way to think about their customers here. They dont want people standing in front of those machines like idiots & having some serious doubts about what is going on inside or is the machine even working. All the theatrics is like a big show that is put up especially for your entertainment and to ensure that you have that MY-money-takes-time-to-count feeling!
I wonder why this keyboard is creating such a racket. No complaints actually! It's really doing a good job of convincing those around that I'm doing some really important work... Hmmmm...
Cheers!
When you sit in the taxi and the taxi driver extends his arm out of the window turns the meter thru 3 slots and brings it in the meter down position with that distinct clickud-clickud-clickud. That's what sets up the ride. That's when you feel... Oh yeah! I have hired this thing and now this machine runs as per my orders! It's just not the same when you have those push-button meters! You dont feel the same way. I'm saying this from personal experience.
Our life is almost filled with such instances where these weird and in most cases unnecessary mechanical sounds make us arrive at some seemingly logical conclusions to convince ourselves. Here's another example to prove my point!
ATMs. Have you noticed the sound that they make before they dispense the cash? Is that a really necessary thing? I mean... the modern day financial institutions have technology to transfer money from Bangalore to Glasgow via Brisbane in a matter of seconds and they cant make silent ATMs??
But it's again the thoughts that the person standing in front of the ATM has that have led to this in a way inefficient design. When the machine is making all those weird noises you just feel somoething is happening. The thud-thud-thud-thud noise goes a long way in convincing that now it's counting MY money! It just somehow makes you believe that you've got such a lot of money in your account that it actually takes time to count it.
Give me a break. What machine counts thud-thud-thud-thud.
But the banks have gone out of the way to think about their customers here. They dont want people standing in front of those machines like idiots & having some serious doubts about what is going on inside or is the machine even working. All the theatrics is like a big show that is put up especially for your entertainment and to ensure that you have that MY-money-takes-time-to-count feeling!
I wonder why this keyboard is creating such a racket. No complaints actually! It's really doing a good job of convincing those around that I'm doing some really important work... Hmmmm...
Cheers!
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