Germany doesn't have a technology problem. It has a software confidence problem.
Germany is simultaneously one of the most and least technologically confident societies on earth
Doctor’s office, Germany, 2026: I am a new patient, which implies they need to know who I am. I am filling out a form about my personal data. Next page: again, full name, address, date of birth, medical history. Third and last form: GDPR. Again, full name, address, and how they may contact me.
I don’t mind filling out any form. I do mind that, in 2026, there is no standardized way of entering my data digitally. I have a national ID card with NFC and my data stored on it. I have a national insurance card with my personal data stored on it. Shouldn’t that be enough?
If you use paper, why does it have to be three separate forms with all the same information on them? Aren’t you digitizing those for better storage? Then why not digitize them from the start? Why is it that, in 2026, there is no single way in Germany to capture my data, medical history, and GDPR preferences digitally?
Paper does not create enough friction to digitize paper. Additionally, paper has always been used to gather personal information.
Another point is that a cross-section of the population is visiting a doctor’s office at any time: people who are more used to technology and people who are less used to technology. Giving people who are not as keen on technology a device to enter their personal information could create more friction than just a paper form, or three.
And yet, in the same country, in the same year, we can find some smart factories such as BMW’s, where they can assemble a car almost automatically. The friction involved in creating this technology seems to have been worth it.
This is not coincidental. If we look back in history, Germany developed a strong industrial culture rooted in mechanical engineering. If a company released a product, it was mechanical work, it worked flawlessly, and how it worked was transparent.
Then, around the turn of the millennium, software entered the stage. The main difference between mechanical systems and software is that software is less transparent and more prone to errors, which also has to do with the underlying hardware. Software is less predictable than mechanical systems because it interacts with user behavior and different hardware environments. But this uncertainty can be designed for.
In other words, the perfectionism behind the label “Made in Germany” was built on systems you could see, touch, and verify.
Lastly, when I finished high school, I did some sales work for a local phone carrier. My task was to sell phones with an internet flat rate. While I couldn’t sell internet for your smartphone, I tried to sell “mobile internet.” Unfortunately, this did not help, as people thought it was the same thing. They were not “going onto Google” while they were on the go. The fact that apps need an internet connection was not established knowledge.
What we see here is that while software has arrived in industry, software hasn’t fully arrived in society. We had information at our fingertips, but didn’t know how to use it.
Germany has a unique view of technology. On the one side, we have the idea that mechanical work is transparent and more reliable compared with software, which enhances the need for perfectionism. At the same time, we see software as a toy rather than a tool.
While industry shows what is possible with software, it is outside of the engineering halls that this statement holds true.
Michael Jastram writes that the problem is not the engineer; it is, however, the system they operate in, as he puts it in terms of slow adoption rates, which are caused by a deep preference for certainty over speed [S1].
Philipp Raasch describes it as a coordinated collective versus individual players: China building an industrial system designed for speed, while German companies compete alone. He adds that Germany does not understand software and that engineers in companies such as CARIAD try to break free of a world of tradition [S2].
This shows that it is a systematic issue rooted deeply in our society.
The issue is not that we use paper rather than digital forms. Paper has been used for over 2,000 years to store information. The issue lies in the uncertainty.
Uncertainty avoidance plus mechanical engineering equals world-class reliability.
In that framing, uncertainty avoidance plus software tends to lead to paralysis.
The trait isn’t wrong. The application is mismatched.
This uncertainty, this not knowing how a system actually works, stands in the way of progress.
Next time you use a system, explore what other functionality the system offers. Simply because people who don’t understand the systems around them adapt to them. People who do understand them shape them.
S1: https://productvelocity.org/resources/its-not-the-engineers/