300,000,000

[Prudence]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

My Pacific Northwest training must have been inadequate then because I would have no problem at all telling her to knock it off.

I still have a little soupçon of east coast left in me and thus I was able to tell the woman who was singing last week - not humming, but singing, loudly - to knock it off. (and she looked at me like I'd grown a second head, as clearly no one had ever asked her to curtail anything she felt like doing ever.) But there's not much I can do when the office manager arranges for facilities to wall off our window.

Yesterday my east coast granules had the day off so I engaged in properly authorized PacNW passive aggressive techniques. (Specifically, using my headphones that bleed sound and playing Disney themepark music. Guaranteed to drive the non-fan crazy.)

[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.

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

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

Let's see...

20 Waisted seconds per transaction
With say an average of 6 lines per store
open twelve hours per day
with an average of 5min/check out
at 445,110 grocery stores nationwide

(((12*60)/5)*6*20)*445,110 = ~243 Years / day waisted in this country by people too lazy and inconsiderate of others to simpley pay attention. That's more than the lifetime of Walt Disney, MLK, and Bob Bell combined.

[Alex]

And that's not very much. More time is probably wasted every day by a moment of indecision as to whether McDonald's or Burger King will be the lunchtime destination.

But yes, when you are the one that has to way 243 years to buy your groceries then I can understand you being upset. When you only have to wait an extra 20 seconds you should simply calm down, relax, at enjoy the world around you. The potato chips won't go stale in the extra 20 seconds it takes you to get them home.

And your 243 years number is horribly inflated by the assumption that every transaction has this unacceptable delay built into it, which is not remotely true, but if it were then it becomes the societal norm and you are being even more unreasonable in getting upset.

It is also inflated because the page you link says there are 163,000 grocery stores in the United States, not 445,110. Add in 81,900 convenience stores, 56,700 superettes, and 80,600 specialty food stores (such as butchers) and you still have only 382,200. Correct for these inflated numbers and it seems there is even less to complain about.

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

It is also inflated because the page you link says there are 163,000 grocery stores in the United States, not 445,110.

Oops, my bad. I read the NAICS code number as the count. I stand corrected.

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

you should simply calm down, relax

Interesting. So far all I've done is request, in a considerate way, that people to pay attention to their surroundings. I've never made someones life "much worse" becuase they were slow in the checkout line. Do you just assume that everyone is as militaristic in their reactions as you seem to be? As far as I can tell you are the only one flipping out by suggesting it's OK to block traffic (in apparent disregard to how many others might be effected) and threatening to make peoples life "much worse" in response to minor indiscretions. Perhaps your "calm down" advice would be more appropriate if aimed in a sightly different direction?

[Alex]

Oh, I'm always calm about it, I'm probably the least excitable driver you'll ever encounter.

And I don't think I am making their life much worse, they think I am making their life much worse. Also, when I'm already going 15 miles over the speed limit, I don't consider myself to be blocking traffic, and if you want to go faster than me I'll happily move over as soon as I finish passing. It is only when one insists that I move as fast one wants me to move that it is necessary to remind one that there are worse things in the world than politely waiting for someone.

You're the one so bothered by 20 wasted seconds, be it at the cash register or the stop light, that you needed to post about it. It not only bothers you at the moment, but apparently well after the fact. So much so that when someone suggests you just not be bothered by it that you have to try to spin it up into a much larger sociological problem with a catastrophic impact on the GDB and shortening the lifespan of American heroes.

It must be difficult to live with the constant aggravation of people not behaving exactly the way you want them to. However, if you aren't bothered by the minor delay, then the advice obviously isn't directed at you but rather the people who waste time complaining about the minor inconveniences of life.

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Alex Stroup

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.

I usually have a sudden desire to test the effectiveness of my braking system.

[sleepyjeff]

I was at Safeway the other day too. I had only 4 items and was just hopping into the fast lane when some guy with a crazed look about him shows me his 1 item and pretty much jumps in front of me(I guess he just assumed that since he only had one item it was ok to line jump....whatever). He gets up to the cashier, starts rapping his fingers rapidly on the counter and asks her, not too nicely, "where are the .33 cent candy bars?" She tells him and he leaves the line, comes back with 6 bars(he was quick, but still... )

Piece of work.

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

I wonder if they specified who the 3 millionth person was? And did they get a free churro?

[Nephythys]

bwa ha ha!

I hear there is a birth ever 5-6 minutes- but what is the death rate?