The Myth of Efficiency

The Myth of Efficiency
baselinescenario.com

Of course, I could also easily see how if you were focused on something, walking a long ways to the printer might be just enough of a distraction to make you lose your focus. I imagine short "breaks" like walking to the printer would effect everyone a little differently.

  "Good morning," said the little prince.
  "Good morning," said the merchant.

  This was a merchant who sold pills that had been invented
  to quench thirst. You need only swallow one pill a week,
  and you would feel no need of anything to drink.

  "Why are you selling those?" asked the little prince.

  "Because they save a tremendous amount of time," said the
  merchant. "Computations have been made by experts. With
  these pills, you save fifty-three minutes in every week."

  "And what do I do with those fifty-three minutes?"

  "Anything you like..."

  "As for me," said the little prince to himself, "if I had
  fifty-three minutes to spend as I liked, I should walk at
  my leisure toward a spring of fresh water."

> Homer's Uncle Ulysses and Aunt Agnes have a very up and coming lunch room over in Centerburg, just across from the court house on the town square. Uncle Ulysses is a man with advanced ideas and a weakness for labor saving devices. He equipped the lunch room with automatic toasters, automatic coffee maker,' automatic dish washer, and an automatic doughnut maker. All just the latest thing in labor saving devices. Aunt Agnes would throw up her hands and sigh every time Uncle Ulysses bought a new labor saving device. Sometimes she became unkindly disposed toward him for days and days. She was of the opinion that Uncle Ulysses just frittered away his spare time over at the barber shop with the sheriff and thee boys, so, what was the good of a labor saving device that gave you more time to fritter?

Robert McClosky, The Donuts of Homer Price