Habituation leads to mistakes becoming invisible. It is a threat to quality and continual improvement.
For example: It is a stereotype that Asian movies have out-of-sync audio tracks. Many of the Asian sitcoms on Singaporean television also demonstrate this trait.
Of course, when you dub another language over what the actors were originally speaking, synchronisation is inevitable. This is clearly not always the case. The sound tracks are out-of-sync even when the actors are clearly speaking the same language as the voice over.
Why is this problem so prevalent? I cannot believe this is in anyway technically impossible to correct. After all, not ALL Asian movies exhibit this appalling lack of quality.
Ergo: it would seem that nobody really notices any more. And if nobody notices, then nobody can improve it. (Or nobody cares, as close enough is good enough…)
This also illustrates the importance of having someone on the outside looking in. Problems made invisible by habituation can only be spotted by outsiders.
