The first time I used an automatic teller machine (ATM) was in November 1977. I stuck in my card and got $40 quick cash. $40 in 1977 bought four full tanks of gas, or two nice dinners out for two, with wine.
I remember hearing the wheels turn as it fed the two bills out the chute, wondering how it did that.
In 1986 I interviewed with Fujitsu in their division that builds ATMs. That’s when I saw for the first time the inner workings of a cash feeding mechanism. I was fascinated by all the bands, pulleys and flywheels, spinning rapidly and somehow counting banknotes accurately before feeding them out. I was amazed that it ever worked.
35 years have gone by since my first use of the ATM, almost 13,000 days. Getting cash once every two weeks, which is probably right for me, would mean I have used an ATM 500 times in my life. Usually I get $200 nowadays, and I always take out the bills, hold them up so the camera can see me, and I count them.
Never once have I not received the right amount. It is always right. Always. I have never met anyone that said that an ATM had cheated them out of money. Very occasionally they are out-of-order, and they don’t accept my card. So if they have trouble giving me money, they “know” it and shut themselves down.
Of all products I have ever used, the ATM is the only one that has never failed me.
Why don’t we build everything like ATMs?