I used to get really annoyed when I encounter glaring typos on official documents and presentations. Presentations with wrong dates, contradicting information (sometimes on the same slide!). The worst offender I have seen was a memo to be approved by VP, wherein the title itself contained a typo: the company name.
And the reason for my annoyance was my perception that typos communicate a careless, poor-quality attitude. Sure, we make mistakes and we are human beings, and we can easily forgive the genuine oversight that happens occasionally – I know I myself am guilty of this too. But sometimes, the typos are so obvious, numerous, embarassing and cringeworthy that it indicates something else entirely: an “I don’t care” attitude. The kind of attitude that makes you wonder: how can one put his/her name on that document, let alone the company logo, on this hot mess?
If you can’t be bothered to put in the effort and time to spell-check your product from obvious typo errors, that makes me doubt that you did ANY quality check at all. It almost feels disrespectful to my time to have to go through that document or presentation, with the tainted impression that it has been so severely compromised.
But these days, I have since learned to handle it with a bit more optimism and tolerance. Firstly, have a good laugh out of it, if you can. (Toads triggering safety hazards on offshore platforms. Why not?)
Secondly, is when I consider this recently-encountered mindblowing revelation about the psychology of typos, from psychologist Tom Stafford of the University of Sheffield, UK:
“The reason typos get through isn’t because we’re stupid or careless, it’s because what we’re doing is actually VERY SMART.
When you’re writing, you’re trying to convey meaning. It’s a very high-level task.
As with all high-level tasks, your brain generalizes simple, component parts (like turning letters into words and words into sentences) so it can focus on more complex tasks (like combining sentences into complex ideas). We don’t catch every detail, we’re not like computers or NSA databases. Rather, we take in sensory information and combine it with what we expect, and we extract meaning.
When we're reading other peoples' work, this helps us arrive at meaning faster by using less brain power. When we're proofreading our own work, we know the meaning we want to convey. Because we expect that meaning to be there, it's easier for us to miss when parts (or all) of it are absent. The reason we don't see our own typos is because what we see on the screen is competing with the version that exists in our heads.” (End Quote)
Ah okay, I get it… The reason we make typo mistakes is a very relatable, human reason: because we focus on the meaning and overall message, not individual words. The forest, not the trees. The Nasi Kandar mix, not the slightly-too-spicy fish curry. They blend in. The producer/author focuses on the overall package, not the components. I get it.
This certainly helps in my perception to have Husnu-Dzon (good thoughts) for the silly typos in conveying broad ideas. For example, in this case, we can immediately tell that the author intends suspended “load”, because the broad context is the safety hazard of lifting operations, because a little amphibian is unlikely to result in an integrity risk.
(Or is it? 🤔)
Okay, that explains some of it, but still doesn’t quite dismiss the basic criminal offences of wrong dates, names, and contradictions. Sorry, these ones still belong in the bucket of “poor quality attitude”.
We should put in the extra effort to ensure that we produce quality work that we are proud of: not just a “get it over and done with” attitude.
That two second make-or-break impression can undo the great work that we’ve put on for so long: Why not just go a little bit further to do some basic QC?
This isn’t the “extra mile”, this is basic “factory QC”.
Prophet Muhammad ﷺ said,
إِنَّ اللَّهَ كَتَبَ الإِحْسَانَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَىْءٍ
“Verily, Allah has enjoined (that you perform with) excellence (ihsan) in every single thing” (Muslim)
No toads were harmed in the composition of this post.
Seen any good typos lately? What are your thoughts on typos: Bad attitude or hyper-intelligence?
#hazardoustoads #typos #ihsan #TheBarakahEffect
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