In hindsight I feel a little bad about this next retail story. My co-worker Trey was there that day. The faithful day when some twelve year old boy wanted to talk about video cards. This was fairly common at Circuit City. Some kid spends four hours a day studying hardware reviews and then wants to talk to the tech head at the local store. There’s really no harm in it, but what do you do when the kid won’t go away.
Well, on one such occasion Trey and I were having to build end-caps. We were unpacking laptops to put them on display. This kid just kept going on and on while we were working. Finally I asked him the question.
Henshaw: Have you read about echo chamber distortion?
Kid: Yeah
Henshaw: All the high end video cards have them.
Kid: I’ve been reading a lot about that online…
There’s only one problem with echo chamber distortion; it doesn’t exist. The look on Trey’s face while this conversation took place was priceless. He could barely stop himself from laughing. Finally the kid left us alone. I realize now I really don’t much about video cards anymore. I can’t tell you what the best Intel chip is… all that knowledge is gone. Like Circuit City it’s gone with wind.
Anyway, what can be learned from this encounter? Culturally speaking Americans tend to answer yes to questions like “did you see this” or “did you read about that?” Admittedly this kid wasn’t the last time I’ve pulled out echo chamber distortion. It sounds technical. The real trick is convincing the person you know what you’re talking about. Our president has mastered this art.
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