ALS weakens muscles. Not all muscles at once and affected muscles vary from person to person. 30 months after the first visible symptoms appeared, I now have weakness in hands and arms. That means shaving and cutting my hair are becoming difficult.

Prior to ALS, my grooming routine was simple. Lather and shave my face. Use hair cutting clippers on my head.

Done.

Simple has become difficult. My hands and arms are weak so I bought an electric shaver that can do both. Shave and a hair cut. $160.

I have always enjoyed time and motion studies.

The two techniques became integrated and refined into a widely accepted method applicable to the improvement and upgrading of work systems. This integrated approach to work system improvement is known as methods engineering and it is applied today to industrial as well as service organizations, including banks, schools and hospitals

Say what?

Think of it as figuring out how to do something more efficiently. In an attempt to reduce steps and efforts I ended up going backward. A $160 electric shaver that can be used for a shave and a hair cut is far less efficient and more expensive than cheap razor blades from Walmart.

Worse, the instructions on how to use the shaver are drawings. Drawings. Graphics. No words were wasted on explaining how to use and not use the electric shaver. Instead, instructions are drawings similar to the kind cavemen left in their caves.

This is the 21st century. Where are the words, Braun?

Undeterred, I explored the Braun website to find an official manual with all the details on what to do and how to do it, and what not to do with their 21st-century electric shaver.

What did Braun give me?

Exactly the same drawings included in the instruction book; drawings designed for cavemen who cannot read. No words. That means each drawing is up for interpretation and that can be a slow and time-consuming process to get the meaning just right.

Braun’s instructions are for people who lived in caves and spoke in grunts.