ID10T: Lenovo Is Too Polite to Say It

Lenovo has a glossary entry for ID10T. An actual, official, corporate glossary entry. We are not making this up. Go look.

Here is their definition, word for word:

"ID10T is a humorous term used in the tech industry to describe a common problem: user error."

Then they keep going. Eighteen sections. "Can ID10T errors be beneficial for learning purposes?" "Can ID10T errors be minimized through user-centered design?" It reads like someone was asked to explain a whoopee cushion as "an acoustic device used in social settings."

And in all eighteen sections, not once do they say the obvious part. So we will.

Write it down

I. D. 1. 0. T.

Now look at it. Squint if you have to. Read the 1 as an I and the 0 as an O.

ID10T spells IDIOT.

That's the joke. That's the whole joke. It has been the whole joke since help desks carried pagers. Lenovo wrote a thoughtful, respectful essay about it, which is the most Lenovo thing we have ever seen.

How the professionals use it

You write "ID10T error" in the ticket notes. The user sees it and assumes it's an error code, because it looks like one. They ask what it means. You tell them it's "a configuration issue." They ask where. You say "between the keyboard and the chair." They nod. Everyone goes home happy, but only one of you knows why.

ID10T has cousins. You should meet them:

PEBKAC

Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair.

PICNIC

Problem In Chair, Not In Computer.

Layer 8 issue

The OSI networking model has seven layers. Layer 8 is you.

Where Lenovo has a point (we hate this)

Buried in their eighteen sections is a question about whether better design can reduce ID10T errors. Annoyingly, the answer is yes. If forty different people make the same "user error," at some point that's not forty idiots. That's one bad system.

We still prefer the forty-idiots theory. It's more fun to write on the invoice.

Names changed to protect the ID10Ts. Also, this story is fiction. Any resemblance to your office is your office's fault.