REVIEW: The History of Money: A Story of Humanity by David McWilliams (2-stars)

 TLDR: A lively premise weighed down by oversimplification and a mismatch between subtitle and substance.

McWilliams sets out to tell “a story of humanity,” but the execution feels much narrower. The book reads as if it were built around a handful of pre‑selected concepts (coins, credit, trust, markets) rather than a coherent historical arc. Because that structure is never made explicit, the narrative jumps abruptly across centuries and civilizations, often without context or connective tissue.

The opening chapter on Rome is engaging and cinematic, but the momentum falters quickly. The transition into the Middle Ages is especially thin, relying on broad generalizations about Western Europe (“command and control economy,” “work hard to go to heaven”) rather than primary sources or meaningful economic analysis. Entire regions and monetary innovations — China, the Islamic world, the Mongol Empire, Africa, the Americas — are largely absent, which makes the subtitle’s claim to cover “humanity” feel overstated.

I’m also increasingly wary of books marketed as both a “breezy romp” and “important.” Those two promises rarely coexist well. When a book tries to be light, fast, and universal all at once, the result is often what happens here: a narrative that moves quickly but flattens complexity, oversimplifies history, and leaves out the very material that would make the subject genuinely meaningful.

The writing is accessible and fast‑paced, but often at the cost of depth. Readers looking for a TED‑style overview may enjoy the tone. Readers seeking rigor, global context, or a grounded history of monetary systems will likely find the treatment too superficial.

Recommended alternatives: If you’re genuinely interested in the history of money or want a more accurate picture of the medieval world, I strongly suggest pairing (or replacing) this with:

• Jack Weatherford’s The History of Money — a more global, anthropological, and conceptually coherent exploration of how money evolved across cultures.

• Matthew Gabriele & David Perry’s The Bright Ages — not a book about money specifically, but an excellent corrective to the flattened, Eurocentric Middle Ages narrative used here.

Bottom line: A quick, energetic read that overpromises on scope and underdelivers on depth. Best suited for readers new to the topic who prefer narrative momentum over historical nuance. REVIEW: The History of Money: A Story of Humanity by David McWilliams

RATING: 2-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

Part 2: What I’d Do as the Product/Program Manager at TurboTax

After sharing my experience with the Intuit TurboTax Advantage renewal bug, I’ve had a lot of people ask: “What would you do if you were the PM responsible for this?”

Here’s exactly what I would do — not months from now, but immediately, while engineering works on the backend fix.

1. Equip Customer Support With the Right Script (Today)

The support specialist eventually told me this was a known issue with ZIP+4 formatting. That should be the first thing support says — not the 20 irrelevant questions that came before it.

Support should be trained to say:

“We have a known issue with ZIP+4 address formatting that can prevent payments from going through. Please select the version with the hyphen.”

This single sentence would have saved hours of customer time and reduced support load dramatically.

2. Stop the Endless “Payment Failed” Emails and Fix Affected Accounts Proactively

Instead of sending customers months of “Your payment failed” messages they can’t resolve, the product team should:

• Identify all Advantage subscribers with repeated payment failures
• Check whether their stored billing address uses the problematic ZIP+4 format
• Correct the formatting on the backend
• Retry the payment or notify the customer with a real explanation

If the system knows the customer can’t fix the issue, it shouldn’t keep telling them to fix it.

3. Update the Error Messaging Immediately

The current message — “There’s a problem with your credit card” — is inaccurate and misleading.

A better version would be:

“We’re having trouble validating your billing address. Please confirm your ZIP+4 format.”

Clear, actionable, and honest.

4. Add a Temporary Banner in the Account Dashboard

If this is a known issue, customers shouldn’t have to discover it by accident.

A simple banner would prevent thousands of failed renewals:

“We are currently experiencing issues with ZIP+4 address validation. If prompted, please select the ZIP+4 format with a hyphen.”

Transparency builds trust.

5. Send a Targeted “We Fixed It” Email Once the Backend Patch Is Live

When engineering resolves the root cause, TurboTax should notify every impacted customer:

• Acknowledge the issue
• Confirm the fix
• Provide a one‑click renewal link
• Optionally offer a goodwill gesture

This is how you rebuild confidence after months of failed renewals.

6. Fix the Voice System That Turned “Jennifer Clark” Into “Yessir Fart”

This isn’t just funny — it’s brand‑damaging.

The voice system couldn’t recognize my name or email address, and the transcription was so far off that it made reaching a human unnecessarily difficult.

At minimum:

• Identify people based on phone number like most other businesses do
• Add a keypad fallback
• Improve transcription accuracy
• The system requires user confirmation before proceeding, but if it's not working after multiple tries - why not let users skip this step?

If your IVR system insults your customers and takes too long, you’re losing them before support even begins.

7. Align the Address Form, USPS Validation, and Payment Processor

This is the root cause:

• I entered only a 5‑digit ZIP
• Intuit’s form auto‑generated a ZIP+4 with a hyphen
• USPS validation returned a ZIP+4 with a space
• The payment processor only accepts the hyphenated version
• The UI forced me to choose between two system‑generated formats
• The recommended one was the one that failed

This is a classic cross‑system integration issue — and it’s fixable.

8. Add Monitoring for Address‑Related Payment Failures

A PM should ensure engineering adds:

• Logging for address‑format mismatches
• Alerts when failures spike
• A dashboard tile for payment failures correlated with USPS validation

This prevents the issue from going undetected or unresolved for months.

Why This Matters

None of these steps require a full engineering cycle. They’re operational, communication, and UX fixes that reduce customer pain today.

And they’re exactly what strong product and program leaders do: stabilize the customer experience now, while engineering works on the long‑term solution.

Even at the lowest plausible scale, this bug has real financial impact.

TurboTax Advantage renewals are $70 each If this issue affects even 1,000 customers, that’s $70,000 in preventable lost revenue. And that’s before factoring in:

• Support call costs
• Operational overhead from repeated failure emails
• Customer churn to competitors
• Brand damage from broken flows and unusable voice systems

Realistically, the number of impacted customers is likely far higher. Even a modest estimate of 6,000 affected users puts the revenue exposure at $420,000. At the higher end, it could easily reach seven figures.

This is why addressing the issue quickly — and communicating clearly with customers — isn’t just good UX. It’s good business.

 

TurboTax Advantage Renewal UX Bug + Voice System Fail

 My story begins in late September with a reminder that my renewal was upcoming. I logged in and checked to ensure the correct credit card was on file for both my account and the subscription (forcing the user to check two locations). Over the last several months, I received multiple emails from Intuit TurboTax for my subscription saying my renewal payment had failed, each time, I promptly logged into the Intuit site, double checked my credit card, and assumed the issue was resolved.

It wasn’t.

This week, despite trying multiple valid credit cards and following every prompt, I kept receiving onscreen failure notices. Each time I returned to the site, re-entered my billing info, and retried the renewal. The interface showed a red warning: “Your payment method requires attention. There was an issue with processing your payment.” But the issue wasn’t the card.

Eventually, I got on the phone with Intuit support — which is no small feat. Their voice system asked me to say my name and then spelled it back as: “Yessir Fart.” I wish I were joking. I couldn’t even get my email address recognized after multiple tries. If Intuit wants to retain customers in a competitive market, that system needs serious attention.

Once I reached a human, the support specialist confirmed this was a “known issue” and that “someone is working on it.” They also mentioned ongoing payment problems throughout the year.

They suggested I follow a link to purchase the TurboTax Advantage plan as new. I tried again — same failure.

This time, I noticed something subtle: the system was prompting me to choose between two address formats:

• My entered ZIP+4 (formatted as XXXXX-XXXX, which their own form suggested), or
• The USPS‑standardized version (formatted as XXXXX XXXX without the hyphen)

Every time I selected the USPS‑suggested address, the payment failed. On the third try, I selected “Keep mine” — the version with the hyphen — and the payment went through immediately.

This is exactly the kind of data‑normalization bug that creates unnecessary friction, support calls, and customer frustration. For teams working on checkout flows, this is a reminder that:

• Address normalization must be consistent with downstream payment processors
• Error messages should reflect the actual failure point
• USPS‑suggested formats shouldn’t break transactions
• Voice systems should not turn “Jennifer Clark” into “Yessir Fart”

To make this easier for Intuit’s web and QA teams, here’s the issue expressed in Cucumber format:

Feature: Payment Processing During TurboTax Advantage Renewal

As a returning TurboTax Advantage customer I want the address‑verification step to correctly validate USPS‑standardized ZIP+4 formats So that I can renew my subscription without repeated payment failures.

Scenario: USPS‑formatted ZIP+4 causes payment failure

Given a returning TurboTax Advantage customer receives repeated notifications that their renewal payment has failed And they log into their Intuit account to update billing information And they enter a valid credit card and billing address When the system prompts them to choose between their entered address and the USPS‑suggested address And the customer selects the USPS‑suggested address (ZIP+4 without hyphen) Then the system accepts the address But the payment submission fails with the message “There’s a problem with your credit card” And the renewal does not complete despite multiple attempts and multiple valid credit cards.

Scenario: User‑entered ZIP+4 with hyphen allows successful payment

Given the same customer retries the purchase or renewal And the system again prompts them to choose between the two address formats When the customer selects “Keep mine” (ZIP+4 with hyphen) Then the payment is processed successfully And the TurboTax Advantage renewal completes without error.

If anyone on the Intuit product, engineering, or QA teams wants more detail, I’m happy to share additional context. This is a small fix with a big impact on customer experience — and a reminder that voice systems should never insult your customers.

NOTE:

One important detail: I never entered a ZIP+4 myself. I only typed my 5‑digit ZIP. Intuit’s form auto‑generated the ZIP+4 with a hyphen. When I clicked “Submit,” the system popped up a dialog asking me to choose between the USPS‑formatted address (ZIP+4 with a space) or the “user-entered” version (ZIP+4 with a hyphen). Both formats were system-generated — but only the hyphenated version works with their payment processor. The USPS version consistently breaks the renewal flow.

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.