Don’t blame Lockyer for Grand Final snafu
Darren Lockyer is copping flak for his role in the Clive Churchill Medal presentation debacle during Sunday’s NRL Grand Final, but it’s the ridiculous reliance on high tech that is surely to blame, writes David Mills.
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One thing that’s not clear in the reports of the tech snafu that led to embarrassing scenes at the presentation of the Clive Churchill Medal after Sunday night’s NRL grand final is whether the problem was at its heart human or computer related.
“A failure to load a voting app” has been blamed for the error, which resulted in Jared Waerea-Hargraves from the Sydney Roosters being told he was the winner, only to be left standing awkwardly by the dais as the medal was awarded to Jack Wighton from the Canberra Raiders. Can you imagine anything more excruciating?
Clive Churchill Medal judge Darren Lockyer reportedly experienced the app problem, although it is not clear whether the “failure to load” was because he forgot to do so, or because of a technical glitch.
In any case, Lockyer ended up passing his votes on verbally, while the votes of the other two judges Mal Meninga and Laurie Daley were lodged via the app, and because of Murphy’s Law, the tallying got confused.
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It’s also unclear why the NRL insisted that a mobile phone app was apparently necessary to tally the votes of three judges, when clearly a few folded-up slips of paper would have done a superior job.
Lockyer is copping some flak online for the incident, but he’s got my sympathies.
Having to download an app in order to complete a simple task is one of the maddening things about life in our tech-crazy modern times — and it’s something we seem to be asked to do more and more frequently.
A few years ago I wanted to buy tickets to a single Sydney Film Festival screening — a task that could only be accomplished by downloading an app.
And earlier this year I signed up to do a simple bit of volunteering for a political candidate — and an app was also inexplicably an essential part of this process.
Now, downloading an app may not seem too onerous, but it’s my impression that because tech seems to work smoothly about as often as it doesn’t, they don’t always render properly, and there are a lot of apps out there that are confusingly designed.
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I also suspect that inside every app designer there beats the heart of a unrepentant fascist, determined to impose their personal sense of logic on all users of the system they created.
The reality is that we all perceive the world differently, and what seems like logic to many may not seem obvious to absolutely everybody.
But too often the tech-literate seem to display a sneering sort of disdain for those who don’t follow their logic, and who end up struggling with tech problems as a consequence.
Recently I tried to set up an online profile for a work-related website, and after about five unsuccessful attempts I emailed the site moderator for assistance.
His response was to tell me I had “stressed” the system, as if the fault was mine, rather than the stupid site he was running.
I wanted to bite the guy’s head off, but I needed his help to set up my profile, so I had to be all nice about it — but here I am writing about it months later, so obviously my anger has just festered.
Now, don’t go painting me as some kind of Luddite.
There are lots of great, useful apps out there — including those that many readers will use to view this article. And look at the apps for Uber and GoGet: total life-changers. The map showing you how far away your ride is: how good is that?
My issue is not with tech; it’s with poorly-designed tech, or tech that’s deployed for ridiculous purposes.
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I’m reminded of a change that was made to the surf lifeguards’ watch tower at Bondi Beach some time ago. (Stay with me on this.)
Back in the day, the lifeguards would put out a small written sign with the current water temperature, along with any rip warnings. But some bright spark obviously decided that was too lo-tech for a happening hub like Bondi, so they replaced it with an electronic sign that cycles through various messages, with the result being that you now have to stand around waiting for the water temperature to flash up.
It’s a small but prime example of how a hi-tech approach does not always result in a better outcome.
Humans make mistakes too, as demonstrated by the 2015 Miss Universe Pageant and the 2017 Oscars, when the wrong names of winners were read out — so the NRL deserves some credit for at least avoiding a debacle of that magnitude.
But I wouldn’t mind betting they go with a simpler process for the judges to lodge their Clive Churchill Medal decisions next year. Counting to three shouldn’t be that hard.
David Mills is a journalist with News Corp