300,000,000

[Alex]

Originally Posted by Moonliner

Always, everywhere, no matter what you are doing. At the grocery store, get your credit card out and swipe it WHILE the checker is scanning your groceries.

It's funny. 20 years ago we bitched because the person didn't start writing their check until after everything was wrung up. This took a 2 minute payment transaction and turned it into a 4 minute payment transaction.

Now that a 20 second payment transaction is turned into a 40 second payment transaction by similar thoughtlessness we still bitch just as much.

In a decade when instanteous debiting is widely available we'll probably bitch just as much at the person who is too slow and makes 5 seconds take 8.


I'm more in the opposite direction. I hate having to make small talk with strangers but otherwise am pretty laid back about such things. The more you're in a hurry the slower it feels like you're getting there. If I get stuck behind a slow car in the fast lane, oh well, they'll move eventually. As things get crowded I think we need to be become more tolerant of the standard deviation in human behavior because we are more likely to run into the extremes, not increase the pressure for everybody to conform, which just increases the tension.

The other day at Safeway I ended up in line behind a woman from Europe somewhere who was experiencing some confusion about how to pay for with her credit card and there were communication problems that caused more delay. I swear, if the guy behind me in line had a nuclear bomb he would have used it to release the anger he was feeling at this horrible injustice to his time.

Plus, if you honk at me for not driving the way you want me to drive (which generally isn't entirely legal or safe), I guarantee I'm about to make your live much worse. Flash your highbeams at me because I'm passing someone on 5 at 85 miles per hour rather than your preferred 187 miles per hour and I'm likely to experience a sudden loss of power that results in me exactly matching the speed of the car I'm passing. It could take several miles to resolve depending on how insistant you are.