Beware the Crap Gap in Daily Life

Often, it takes little additional time on a product or service to separate quality from crap. It’s worth that extra effort.

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Hold up your hand with your thumb and index finger about one inch apart. In many situations, that short distance represents the difference between quality and crap. Often, all it takes to bridge that “crap gap” is to do a little more questioning, listening, thinking, measuring, or testing before declaring a job complete. Ignoring the crap gap can be expensive for the people who do the work and annoying for their victims.

I’ve written before about how to avoid the crap gap in my field of software development. I have countless other stories of the crap gap in action. Just yesterday, literally, I had three more of these annoying and perplexing experiences. Please share your own examples in the responses. Perhaps collectively we can improve the world.

The Crap Gap Illustrated

Here’s a great example of the crap gap. I have my home’s heating and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems cleaned and checked annually. One autumn the technician who arrived was a cocky guy who acted as though he was the world’s top HVAC expert. When Bill finished, I asked if he wanted to do a final test to make sure everything…