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ChristianKl comments on Procedural Knowledge Gaps - Less Wrong
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I agree. I've also long held a different but complementary view: that all establishments should (hopefully, out of the goodness of their hearts) put up signs that basically say, "this is how it works here".
(For example, at a grocery store in the US, the sign would say something like, "This store sells the items you see inside that have a price label by them. To buy something, take it with you to one of the numbered short aisles [registers] toward the exit and place it on the belt. If you need many items, you may want to use one of the baskets or carts provided near this sign. The store employee at the register will tell you how much the item costs, and you can pay with ...")
While most of it would be obvious to everyone and something parents automatically teach, everyone might find some different part of it to be novel. And I suspect that this easily-correctible "double illusion of transparency", in which people don't think such signs would convey anything new, prevents a lot of beneficial activity from happening.
As I live in Germany I have experience with such rule sets. People don't follow them and instead do whatever they consider to be the obvious thing to do.
Our public transport system has for example the rule that you should stand on the right side of an escalator if you choose to stand.
If you choose to walk the escalator you take the left side.
It's a smart rule and it would be in the public interest if everyone would abide by it. It would make life easier for those who choose who walk the escalator. Normal people however don't care and simple stand wherever they want to stand.
Introducing a formal rule set when people are used to following informal rules is hard.
In London, the same convention is in effect on the Underground. Unlike Germany, it is almost always followed, and enforces itself. If you stand on the left, it won't be long before someone walking will ask you to step aside to let them pass.
There are notices here and there asking people to do this.
The idea is for the sign to describe how it in fact works, not necessarily how they'd like it to work. (A sufficiently detailed sign might explain the distinction, potentially allowed for coordinated punishment of defectors.) That's why I mentioned the bit about "the goodness of their hearts". It would probably require a law because of the problem of people stating outright how something "really" works.
(I've been to the Hauptbahnhoffs btw -- "links gehen, rechts stehen" is the phrase, right?)
I agree -- so the idea instead is to have a sign that can quickly teach people this informal system, since it may be so hard for a newcomer to infer it.
I thought the right-ide standing was a social convention, not a rule.
What sometimes trips me up is weather I am supposed to weight my vegetables before going to the counter, or if they do it there.
When you put social convention into writing and hang them on the walls they become a rule.
Unfortunately it only seems to be a social convention among those who consider it to be a social convention. :P
That's too bad. Large airports in the United States have (flat) automated walkways with a similar rule, and people follow it. Very handy!
There's regional variation-- I'm told that in DC, people follow escalator "slow on the right, fast on the left" etiquette. In Philadelphia, it's pretty random.