3 Common Practices I Dissent From
It’s just a coincidence that they all involve eating:
Putting lime or lemon in a coke – It makes no sense that restaurants assume the customer wants a lemon added to their drink rather than ask. The default should obviously be just the soda. It’s a practical example of Tversky’s conjunction fallacy. It’s much more likely that someone will like just one thing rather than one thing and another.
Adding your own credit card tips – I put the final total amount and leave the tip area blank. Your waiter functions as your cashier and is perfectly capable of doing the math themselves. In fact, that’s partially what you’re tipping them for.
Nachos with beans – The appeal of nachos is based on the interesting contrast between crunchy warm chips and the cool, soft toppings. Beans undermine the purpose of the entire dish. They put an irreversible expiration date on the meal within a matter of minutes and are therefore more appropriate as a request, not a required ingredient.
There are a few others worth observing like turning left on red (in Los Angeles), the carpool lane reverting to the furthermost most left lane in times of no traffic and declining opportunities to “wait” for someone to leave a parking space. Off the top of my head, I don’t think it’s worth struggling to pronounce any foreign word. Just say it how it appears. No one would think it politically correct to criticize the accent of someone from Mexico or France.
What other common practices do we observe that make little sense? There has to be evidence of why dissenting is more logical or convenient, not just that you don’t like it.
Merge late. Works better.
Leave your blinker off in the turn only lane.
Using your foot to move something closer to you when you are sitting down as opposed to standing up to get it.
As someone who’s been a server, I find it’d be much simpler for both parties if you wrote the tip only instead of the total only. The total before tip is generally already in the system, and adding an additional tip requires no math for either party.
Not to be a pain in the ass, but does the conjunction fallacy work for that example? It’s not really coke AND lemon, it’s coke WITH lemon creating a different drink all together.
It still is silly that they would put it in the drink when you can easily make the decision yourself at no extra cost to them.
This is exactly like Tynans post on “8 things you really don’t have to do”
http://www.betterthanyourboyfriend.com/x-things-you-dont-really-have-to-do.htm
A fairly obvious one relating to food:
Three meals a day – breakfast, lunch and dinner. With dinner being the heaviest. Whether you’re hungry or not.
Why not just eat when you’re hungry – or do what athletes do and eat several small meals a day. Most dieticians would say either of these is healthier than the traditional way.
http://www.cocaineblunts.com/blunts/?p=2078
“Where does blog rap come from? It seems like most names on the lips of my peers belong to a bunch of no hit having major label artists that rap fans who only use a computer to check their email and movie times remain blissfully unaware of. How can the critical consensus of the dozen or so limelight bloggers be so dramatically out of tune with the average rap listener?”
Pretty solid piece.
I don’t think the conjunction fallacy is applicable to lime/lemon in coke.
The probability of someone wanting citrus in their coke is the probability of them wanting coke plus the probability of them wanting citrus in their coke. The probability of someone wanting no citrus in their coke is the probability of them wanting coke plus the probability of them not wanting citrus in their coke.
When the server is deciding whether to automatically add fruit the probability of wanting a coke is 100%. The customer has already ordered coke. So whether automatically adding fruit is a good idea depends solely on whether the majority of people prefer their coke with citrus.
Of course it’s a lot easier to add citrus later if the customer complains than it is to take the slice out.
Also, if you were to base bar policy on probability you would take into account the probability that the customer couldn’t care less whether they got a slice of fruit in their coke or not.
Drinking soda at all — I don’t drink soda. I have taking sugar and carbs slowly out of my diet. Benefits: more control over hunger, better performance at the gym and in sports. Also I drink coffee black.
Drinking the espressos the Italian way — FAST. Not the French way, which is slowly. Benefits: saves time.
Finishing books — If I don’t like a book, fuck it. Fiction especially. I’m not going to waste my time reading some load of crap.
addiction — I find people are super scared of addiction. I started smoking for a while just to see what it is like and quit no problem. Addiction is for losers.
” Linda is 31 years old, single, outspoken, and very bright. She majored in philosophy. As a student, she was deeply concerned with issues of discrimination and social justice, and also participated in anti-nuclear demonstrations.
Which is more probable?
1. Linda is a bank teller.
2. Linda is a bank teller and is active in the feminist movement.”
Would a scientist use the coke thing as an example? Probably not. But I think it’s far more likely that someone ordering a coke wants a coke not a coke with lemon.
you know what i hate, houses that put the bathroom light switch on the outside of the bathroom, thats just retarded.
and
1 ply ‘ass destorying’ toilet paper that seems to come standard every expect my bathroom
“The appeal of nachos is based on the interesting contrast between crunchy warm chips and the cool, soft toppings.”
What kind of crack nachos are you eating? I like mine with crunch tortilla chips topped with warm cheese. Cold cheese on nachos just sounds extremely unappetizing.
Hahaha, the soft toppings being the tomatoes, lettuce, sour cream and so forth. Or do you like a nice boiled sour cream?
I’m really obnoxious.
Haha! John Cheever wrote something with a similar title: “A Miscellany of Characters That Will Not Appear” in his next novel.
They turn left on red in LA? Holy fuck that’s stupid.
The expression when you want to get off the phone:
“Well.. Im gonna let YOU go, I’ll talk to you later.”
It should really be:
“Well .. Im gonna let MYSELF go, I’ll talk to you later.”
Funny–I always leave the specific tip math to the waiter too.
I have always noticed that they tend to put the lemon or lime in the diet drink to distinguish it from a regular sodas. So if you were to order a diet coke and a regular, the diet would have the lemon/lime. That has been my experience with that.
Have you ever thought that the lemon was added to the soda for the server’s benefit, not yours? Typically, a lemon/lime wedge is placed on the edge of the glass of *diet* soda so that the server can distinguish it from other cola beverages that they are serving. Also, people often request the lemon, so it saves the server the trip. The cost of running back to the table twice exceeds the cost of offering the option from the get-go.
With respect to tipping, you’ve already done the math and computed the tip if you are entering in a total sum, so why not write that number down? The number is not an unknown. You are just restricting information from the server. And to what end?
If you don’t write the tip and only the total, you’re just trying to be a pain in the ass on purpose and trying to justify it to yourself by saying its part of the waiter’s job.
Plus, it’s not wise on your part to do that. Not that they’ll break your bank or anything, but I guarantee you, server’s addition will be mysteriously off in their favor more often than not if mistakes are made. Reason: they get in trouble if they mis-enter the wrong tip, but if you didn’t specifically write the tip in, they can play stupid if they’re caught for fudging it.