99 percent problem

This note last modified August 20, 2021

#coherentism

Voice interfaces are excellent until they fail. People would rather use a sorta slow interface that is 100% reliable than an interface that works 99% of the time and then fails and frustrates, especially when the consequences of failure could be extreme or irreversible.

This the 99% problem, when something works for you 99% of the time, but then that 1% of the time is just oh so frustrating.

This is how I feel about not having a car in Boston. 99% of the time I just public transport or my bike or whatnot, but that 1% of the time is just sooo frustrating.

Similarly how I feel about Linux. It does everything I need it to, but the 1% of time it can’t do something really sucks.