The Computer Store Mystery

I’m thinking about what I did today. I’ve been doing that a lot lately —- thinking about things very deeply simply because I have a lot of free time, even when I’m returning from a bus trip that lasted hours.

Today, I didn’t do much other than figure out what a place was. I didn’t even know the name of the company, but I did know the company was in Chicago. It was a computer store. I wanted to see how much they’d charge for flash drives and SD cards. The store was supposed to have very good deals on everything. A friend said he got an amazing deal on SD cards, but he couldn’t remember the name of the store. So, the hunt was on.

To start, I had a sighted person look in the phonebook —- or at least I tried to. My facility —- a supportive living community specifically for the blind —- didn’t have a phonebook, so I was left to call Tellme Directory Assistance. An operator came on the line because the automated system didn’t understand my stutter. Quickly, I asked if he could look for a computer company in Chicago. They asked me the name of the company.

“Well, sir,” I began. “I don’t know the name.”

“We need a name, sir.” The operator sighed.

“I don’t have it. Can you just do a general search?”

“Nope.”

“It’s a computer store.” I tried to remember part of the name. I couldn’t.

“Is that the name? ‘Computer Store?’”

“I don’t know.” I felt really incompetent by this point.

“Okay. Look,” he said, exasperated. “Google it.” A click ended the call before I could explain that I couldn’t.

After hanging up the phone, I tried again to look for the Yellow Pages around the facility, but there weren’t any copies or anything resembling them.

I resorted to going around and asking the other residents where they went to get their computer supplies. They all said either online, Best Buy, or a small tech store nearby that I had already known about. It was called Microcenter. I didn’t give up, however. I called Directory Assistance again, hoping to get a different operator. This one hung up the phone after telling me to Google the name and then call her back. Again, I tried going around to my facility’s staff members and pressing them for information. None of them uttered a company name that sounded even vaguely like the one my friend had recommended.

Next, I went to a library. A librarian sat and told me every number and address for every computer store in Chicago. I took down all the names and numbers on a digital voice recorder, and I even asked her for the addresses. Perhaps my friend remembered what street the store was on. I was in the library for at least an hour, listening as the librarian read out every name, number, and address related to stores and electronics.

Finally, I left the library with an audio recording so big it didn’t even fit in one file. I called a few companies after trying my friend and leaving him a message asking him to tell me the store’s address. I hadn’t gotten anywhere with my sleuthing. Nevertheless, I marked down which stores I had called and kept the long list for later. Soon, I realized the whole day had passed and I still didn’t even know the company’s name. I relaxed by reading a book I’d downloaded a month before so that I could eventually write a book review of it.

In a way, I learned something very valuable today, even if I didn’t get the information I wanted. I realized the extent of my dogged determination. I wonder why I hadn’t noticed the same drive in myself a month ago. I’d look things up, one after the other, cross-referencing, double-checking, and comparing. A few theories are swimming around in my head, but I’ll settle on one and lay it out here.

The internet has allowed me to be the master of my own knowledge. But at the same time, it’s made others complacent. I know people who believe the first link on Google is the best or the most appropriate. I firmly believe schools and other resources should teach better search engine techniques. The reason for my keen research ability is that I taught myself everything about search engines and how they work. I did this because, since internet searches are often my primary information sources, I had to.

I know how to do deeper searches through Google and other platforms, using plus signs, quotes, minus symbols, and certain phrases combined with various search formulas. To me, these advanced searches seemed normal. Yet, I constantly heard, “Oh, my god! How did you find that?”

I hope we can all take the following lessons away from my experiment: we should again think about data research as a skill that should be taught and understood, as well as the extent to which we trust not only data but also how they’re handed to us. This topic, I think, would fill a separate book.