I started to respond to this post in this thread, and I got so heated I brought it over here instead.
(Bolding mine) No. You have the right to be anywhere in the world you want to be, except where someone else already is. I am not “wasting your time” by “dawdling” (not that I dawdle, but nevertheless).
Why do so many people think they have the right to move as fast as they want to move? We get the same rants about traffic, and walking, and fast food drive-throughs (of all things - get out of the car a burn a couple of calories for X sake!). And they make up little rules, like no more than 2 transactions at an ATM, or no buying food for groups of people at the drive-through.
Get this truth - there are other people in the world besides you, and they are living their lives that are just as important to them as yours is to you. I don’t care if you’re scheduled up to the second - that’s your problem, not theirs or mine. I don’t believe that anyone has to live like that, but if it happens, it’s still your problem.
The only legitimate complaint I can remember from that thread is where people stop at the top (or bottom) of an escalator. Other than that, wait your turn, or go around, or find another option, but for Og’s sake, chill!
(disclaimer: I get it that people like to vent about petty complaints to their imaginary friends on the internet, and maybe that’s all that’s going on here. But I get a strong sense that lots of the people in that thread really believe that they have the right to push “dawdlers” aside, and would if they thought they could get away with it. Isn’t this how road rage starts?)
Roddy
It’s sad that so many think they must push their way through life with force. Usually, there is an inverse dynamic to be seen. The more force you try to show the world, the less you have in actuality.
I wonder if I start a thread complaining about your complaining, will someone else start a thread complaining about my complaining about your complaining about people complaining about impatient people?
I think it is just an internet thing. I whine about things on the internet that I would not bring up with real people because I would sound petty and cranky. This is what the internet is for. Porn and ranting.
Don’t you understand that slow people are the worst type of stranger to be subjected to? They’re worse than surly stranger, ugly stranger, and smelly stranger combined.
I know you; you stop at the top of escalators while people pile into you, you stand in the middle of the sidewalk in New York while throngs of people try and get by, you put your shopping cart in the middle of the aisle while you decide if you want Cocoa Puffs or Rice Crispies, you wait to look at the menu in McDonalds until you get to the head of the line (hint, it’s probably the same as last time you were there), you don’t get your checkbook out until your purchases are rung up, and you drive 55 in the left hand lane.
I’m with the OP on this one and I always take special care not to hold other people up. I go in the slow lane when I’m going slower. I let people with a couple of items go ahead of me in line when I have a shwack. I do involved banking transactions online.
However, I have no doubt in my mind that I have other habits that annoy the fuck out of people that I’m not even aware that I do so I really try to cut people some slack.
And frankly, no body is that important. I used to think if you were a surgeon rushing to an operation perhaps your time was that important, until I realized something - they’ll wait for you, yah know? Ditto if you’re an astronaut, judge or 5 star chef.
The best part is I think most of the people bitching and complaining about others being slow have no where in particular to be anyway, having perfectly normal lives that won’t be particularly impacted by having to wait an extra 7 minutes at an ATM.
Get over yourselves. I can guarantee there’s something that YOU do that makes people nuts.
The problem isn’t the extra 7 minutes at the ATM on its own.
It’s the 7 extra minutes at the ATM combined with the 15 extra minutes at the Supermarket (because it didn’t occur to someone that they might have to pay for their groceries and now they can’t remember which EFTPOS card has enough money on it and can they pay some EFTPOS and some cash and no, wait, actually, let’s see if their wife has some money in her purse, hang on, she’s on the phone and can’t find her purse in her handbag) combined with 18 extra minutes at the post office (because someone wants to argue over whether a magazine constitutes “documents” or not and how can the post office justify charging that sort of money to send something that small to the UK, and why does it take so long when there are multiple flights heading that way every day?) combined with an extra 25 minutes at the store (because someone won’t stop asking complicated involved questions that they really should have looked up themselves on the internet first to the staff) combined with an extra 5 minutes at the fast-food place (because some peasant doesn’t know what they want to eat despite having been in the queue for 10 minutes in full view of the menu), and then because you’ve been delayed so much you end up getting caught in the school traffic and there’s an extra 25 minutes on your trip right there…
Admittedly that’s a bit hyperbolic, but the point I’m making is all those little “delays” add-up to actual amounts of time, and if you’re on your lunch hour and can see the minutes ticking away it is frustrating to realise you’re going to be lucky to get something to eat, never mind getting to the post office as well to pay the phone bill.
Like I have to accept the British Empire is gone and not coming back, the OP needs to accept that most people live in a fairly busy world and dawdling in “important” places (eg ATM, Bank, Post Office, Supermarket Checkout) really is a serious inconvenience, and whilst they might wish it wasn’t, it is, and people will therefore become irritated at people whom they feel are getting in their way un-necessarily.
It seems to me that it’s the other way around; slowniks not only think their time is more important than yours, they think their time is more important than every one of the multitudes they hold up with their overly deliberate passive aggressive behavior and tend to be somewhat dissociated from society in that respect. They’re the ones not holding up their end of the bargain in maintaining an efficient and cooperative society. The cumulative effect of this behavior could be a significant drain on productivity. So yeah, I’m just going to chill out and not give a second thought to all the time wasted due to sloth.
It’s not up to you to determine how valuable my time is. Are you going to steal a dollar from me and explain it away with “it’s a fucking DOLLAR. Who’s going to miss a dollar?! Get over yourself”?
I don’t get it. Dawdle all you like when its your time. Read War And Peace at a snail’s pace if you wish…its your time.
And sometimes certain holdups are certainly forgivable…if its near Christmas, you have a bunch of packages to send out at the post office, you waited in a long line, now its your turn, you’re going to be awhile…everyone understands those types of scenarios…etcetera.
But some people are either stupid or deliberately obtuse, and that’s the shit that’s got to go. Not being prepared for something to me is mostly inexcusable, like holding up a line to dig around in your purse for a few coupons when you could have done that during the five minutes it took the cashier to ring up your $200 worth of groceries.
Driving 55 in the left lane…you either KNOW you’re doing this because of some personal crusade against driving over the limit (in which case you’re obtuse and an asshole), or you’re just too stupid to realize that traffic is building up behind you and therefore shouldn’t even be driving in the first place.
Perhaps the third category is oblivious people, I tend to be more forgiving here. Everyone can lapse into some quasi daydream zone in relatively innocuous situations, like staring at something in the store for a couple minutes and not realizing that you’re blocking someone else’s path in an aisle. That’s relatively forgivable, unless you do it constantly.
What’s not forgivable is when people act this way and impede the transportation of humans in some manner, whether it be foot traffic on the street (if everyone made an attempt to stay to the right, it would go so much smoother!) or boarding an escalator, to fumbling around with change on the bus…not really excusable.
Oooh, almost forgot to add my personal pet peeve: fucking slow-ass lottery playing people at the head of a long line in a “convenience” store. No, you may not stand there and start scratching off your lottery tickets at the counter! Move aside!
The OP’s completely asinine mostly because of the assumption that people with shit to do think they have a right to force past other people. No, people with shit to do think they have a right to complain about assholes on the internet.
Of course, this is what I meant. If there’s nobody on the interstate, then drive 20 in the left lane for all I care, but promptly get out of the way when someone is bearing down on you to pass you instead of just being completely oblivious to the situation around you.
Sounds like a time management problem. The fact is you should have never tried to pack all those errands into your lunch hour, because it is unrealistic to believe there is a enough time to do them all. The real problem is believing you can do all those errands if only the slowpokes would stay out of your way. They never have, and they never will, so persisting in the belief that some day they might only serves irritate you and everyone around you.
It’s not really about who’s time is more important. If you’re knocking people over in a rush, then you’re an asshole. If you’re blocking up an entire aisle because you decided that was a good time to stop and look through your coupons, then you’re an asshole. Arguing about which person is more wrong probably means you’re out there being an asshole one way or another, and trying to justify it.
If both the slow and the fast decided to be more considerate of others, then the whole thing wouldn’t be an issue, would it?