A reader named Tom Lehnert of Herndon, Virginia, lobs a query that should be filed somewhere between Existentialism and Opportunity Cost:
Have you heard this before: If you don’t miss a plane now and then you’re spending too much time in airports.
Or the corollary: If you don’t get a ticket now and then you’re wasting time in traffic.
Although I very much value efficiency, I never a) miss a plane or b) get a speeding ticket. That would explain why I a) expend so much effort (too much?) trying to maximize my time in airports; and b) live in New York City, where I don’t have to drive much, and therefore avoid traffic.
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And if you don’t hit at least one pedestrian then you are driving too cautiously.
The version of this that I believe is about third base coaches: if none of your players get thrown out at the plate, you’re not sending enough of them. But then there was Wendell Kim.
Also, airlines now make it very difficult to board on short notice. I thought I was doing well once by getting to the Tampa airport 45 minutes before my flight. It’s a pretty small and easy to navigate airport, but the airline cancelled my reservation (because they have some 40 minute cutoff for checking in) and I had to go to the ticket counter to get the matter resolved. OK, so I still got on the flight but the annoyance factor was huge. If I had to do that every time, I’d rather waste the extra 30 minutes or so browsing the airport gift shop. Being entertained by watching people purchase cheap trinkets is a far better use of my time than hassling with underpaid, disgruntled airline employees.
Tom R’s corollary is an excellent one. If I am successful every time I bluff, other players don’t know I bluff, and thus I’m not maximizing the amount I win when I’m not bluffing. However, it’s important not to lose too much when I’m caught bluffing.
Don’t get caught going too fast over the limit. Don’t miss a flight with a really expensive ticket or really high change fee.
I wouldn’t ever miss a plane in Europe again, especially not when traveling Air France. When we missed our flight, they refused to put my daughter and I on another flight from Heathrow to Paris and it cost us $500 to get tickets on British Air.
The speeding issue may be a corollary to those who percieve excessive thrill seeking or disobeying laws as “requirements” for success. He sped and thius had more time since time is $. Does his speeding, perhaps through lights, endanger others? How does this need to exceed play out with suppordinates or others in the office? It is typical of a “top” salesman to have larger sales up front but cost the company more in employee turn over, recalculating deals, lower customer satisfaction with a product that was sold to meet all demands. There is a pathology here.
Driving fast is also correlated to, you know, killing people, so I don’t know if that’s a good rule to live by.
I believe that many of the comments here are missing the point by bringing up specific airline experiences. No where does the original post say missing a plane is not expensive or a huge pain, because it is. The idea is that every time you’ve caught a plane by waiting unproductively for an hour is more of a burden and a greater loss of production than the very rare occasion of missing a flight. On the other hand, making waiting time at an airport more efficient through use of a laptop (or by any other means) will eliminate the risk of missing a flight and the loss of production, but that’s not the point.
The best example on the board here is that of the 3rd base coach. In essence, you aren’t maximizing potential unless you’re flirting with failure.