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Comment by thenthenthen | Hacker News Reader

Other than that the author wont survive one minute in China (I doubts they are interested to visit anyway), a lot of the reasons/rationales seem pretty weak. I also hate QR codes as menus, but not because printing a menu is easy, it is the human interaction that suffers. I can spend days without communicating with humans here… which is quite distopic. Although enjoyable every now and then (after a 80 hour work week for example…)

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I still am a fan of QR code menus but the west never executed on it well enough. In China I just order from the menu on my phone. No waiting for front of house. If I do have questions it’s easy to buzz front of house and they will come over. It’s simply China is ahead some areas of tech, cashless, QR codes everywhere, everything is an app.

“Ahead” in terms of replacing human to human communication. I’m not sure that’s the right direction.

This is my point. It’s pretty scary. Ahead i would say…is true, it is already beyond blade runner dystopia

I am sure my experiences are different than yours but I never considered ordering food peak human to human contact. Again only my own experience but at least in China there is always humans around to answer questions. It’s definitely not for everyone but I much prefer it for my day to day. I would rather go to a lucking coffee where you cannot even order in the store.

Didn’t say “peak”. Most of our interactions are mundane but what happens when we take them away little by little.

Right I did. I guess for those of use that don’t have other human contact those few moments with the front of house are meaningful but for me that’s not the case. But again unless I am going to a nice restaurant I don’t recall having much of any real human contact with the front of house.

It's not important on its own, it just slowly erodes the feeling we live in a society, the reminding that everyone plays a role, even a little one. It lets one get out of their social bubble ever so little, and appreciate that the world is full of people with a life just as rich as their own, which is easily forgotten. I can cook well, I go to the restaurant to be in society; impersonal chains and now impersonal service reduce the experience to functional feeding and are of no interest to me.

I don't think needing a specific app to pay with your phone by scanning a QR code is being ahead, compared to contactless payments or even credit cards.

I guess I did not articulate it well but China leap frogged contactless payments and credit cards. Everything is paid with your phone. I consider that ahead.

What does China have to do with anything in the post? Neither you nor the author would survive a trip to North Korea either, I don't see this as a valuable comment here - it's a complete non sequitur.

I think they are simply referring to the ubiquity of QR codes there.

China is much more smartphone-centric than the US. QR codes are universal, WeChat and AliPay are the most common form of payments (online or in person).

Pretty much everything in China runs on QR codes. Payments too.

Every point. Everything is an app, everything needs your phone number, everyone drives with their high beams on + every 10 second you get photographed by plate readers, everything tries to subscribe you, every app is full of ad splash screens + point systems, all fonts are mini/dense info overload. Oh yeah multiply this times 100x your expectation.

Edit: lets add my own boomer complain: everything is a video <3

Why even go to a restaurant in person anyway, when food delivery exists? The reason is to be social. QR menus neglect this.

The purpose is presumably to be social with your group of people you're out with. There is almost zero social interaction in a typical waiter or waitress interaction, just false smiles and memorized verbal patty-cake. It has more in common with a TCP ACK than it does a genuine social interaction. If you think your waiter is socializing with you, you are mistaken.

It's meant to be a hospitality experience.

Paying a restaurant for them to pretend they're giving you hospitality is like ... Well I think we both know what exactly it's like.

What you get at a restaurant is not hospitality.

> just false smiles and memorized verbal patty-cake.

You know that you're the second part of that social interaction and can veer off the memorized track?

Yes, and the barista who smiles at you does it because she likes you.

When you hold wait staff at your table because you want some bonding time with them you're basically forcing them to perform for you. This isn't a consensual social interaction and you aren't strangers on the street on equal footing. Just be polite and make your order and let them go on to the other million things they're doing.

I hate QR code menus because the UX of a phone screen sucks compared to a large printed out menu. In cheap place with big laminated menus with pictures and I can scan the whole thing easily, to the high end restaurants with fine paper printed in fancy fonts secured by ribbon to hardbacked board. The experience of holding and reading these physical things is part of the enjoyment of going out to eat.

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