“Hmm,” the repairman said, squinting into my washing machine. “How often do you clean the drum?”
“I have to clean the drum?” I replied. “I didn’t know that.”
Did you read the manual? A Samsung Bespoke AI washing machine at a trade fair in Berlin. Credit: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg
He turned to face me, sighed deeply, and shook his head. “Did you read the manual?” he asked.
I did read the manual; at least, I held it in my hands. I flicked through it, and saw that it was made of lots of words, including “draining heights” and “maintenance flap” and “lightly soiled”. And then I tossed the manual into my third drawer, or the “manual drawer”, as it is reverently known, and never spoke or thought of it again.
I am deeply averse to manuals, or, indeed, instructions of any kind. I would rather spend three to six months figuring out how to use an appliance through trial and error than sit down with a manual and read it cover to cover.
I once sat in my car for 40 minutes randomly pressing buttons trying to change the time on the clock for daylight saving; when I finally succeeded, I felt as proud as if I’d assembled the entire vehicle.
I could have read the manual, but who has the patience to do that? Manuals are uninviting, to say the least, and repellent, to say the truth.
A cursory browse through my manual drawer turned up an instruction booklet the size of a novella for a simple coffee machine; it took 135 pages in 13 languages to say “fill it with water and coffee and press the button”.
My step-by-step guide to a happier life? Never read the bloody instructions
10
12
29.02.2024
“Hmm,” the repairman said, squinting into my washing machine. “How often do you clean the drum?”
“I have to clean the drum?” I replied. “I didn’t know that.”
Did you read the manual? A Samsung Bespoke AI washing machine at a trade fair in Berlin. Credit: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg
He turned to face me, sighed deeply, and shook his head. “Did you read the........
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