I have a tendency to become interested in the activities of people. Every once in a while I find something captivating enough that I start to think about it pretty deeply. An example follows.

There is a habit to take walks in the evening. It is no ordinary stroll. It even has a proper name: the Evening Walk. It would be best to think of it as its own thing. The people that partake in the Evening Walk do so in an enthusiastic way. Skipping even just a single a day is considered not done, unless in case of illness. The habit of the Evening Walk is practically sacred.

Upon learning more, I am intrigued. In this part of the world, the weather in the evening is often bad. Yet people claim to enjoy the Evening Walk very much. I decide to investigate and ask the community of Evening Walkers some questions.

The first question I have on my mind is very simple. Since the weather is often bad, does it bother you to walk in the rain?

My question is met with derision.

Why would it bother me? It’s just water after all. What a silly question.

Why do you care anyway?

I argue that it seems bothersome.

Well, it doesn’t really bother me.

But how it could it not bother you?

Maybe Evening Walks just aren’t for you. Not everything has to be liked by everyone. It’s okay for different people to enjoy different things.

I’m surprised and taken aback by these responses. For some reason they don’t seem to be bothered with something that I obviously think is bothersome, and my concerns are quickly dismissed. I stop engaging with the community and leave dissatsified, unsure what to make of it all. I decide to take a break from thinking about this matter, while keeping this little investigation open.

To Shield From Rain

Now that a year has passed since the invention of the umbrella, I set out to revisit the community and ask the same question I did before:

Does it bother you to walk in the rain?

Yep. It’s why I carry an umbrella with me when the weather’s bad.

I am met with no other response. The others meekly nod in agreement, content that this one comment captures their sentiment well enough.

It may seem implausible that literally no one claimed to be bothered by the rain before. That’s because I made a mistake, you see.

I thought it would be a good idea to investigate by asking the community of Evening Walkers. But it is exactly the community that is favorably biased towards the activity. If I had tried to look outside of this community, I may have discovered much sooner that plenty of people find the rain bothersome. That’s why people generally didn’t bother with Evening Walks. If they didn’t bother with it, they don’t become part of a community. The community being a gathering of enthusiasts, they will discuss the subject in a way that is pleasant. This creates a kind of atmosphere where speaking of the downsides of the activity is suppressed. I screwed up my investigation from the very beginning because I did not understand these things at the time.

The thing with problems is that they have to be discovered before they can be solved. This is complicated by the fact that people often seem to engage in this strange kind of subterfuge. It’s something you have to contend with if you want to solve problems.

I want to be angry about it, but realizing that this is just a thing that people do, my anger is ultimately displaced by fascination. Which is probably for the best. Designers have no choice but to consign themselves to the vagaries of anthropology.