I wonder if I can find a theme, or a way to understand and fix these dislikes/pet peeves. What gets you upset, angry, annoyed, riled up, pissed off? Here a just a few that I can up with in about an hour...
Business
*Terrible customer service (salesperson not paying attention or gossiping with her colleagues)
*When plumbers, electricians, delivery people, etc... don't give you an estimate (or a very innacurate estimate without updates) on when they will arrive at your house or business
*Stores that don't list hours of operation
*Banks and other firms that try to hit you with hidden fees, surcharges, and taxes
*Unclear prices at stores
*Dealing with auto repair shops
*Stores (including restaurants) that are too bright (lighting)
*A lack of common business sense
*Delivery service/repair person who does not call in advance before a delivery or who gives a wide range of times for a delivery/meeting - like 10am-6pm
Health
*Trying to find a new doctor/dentist
*Doctors who don't tell you your test results (without aggressively pursuing them)
Shopping
*Purchases (like printers) where you need to buy other items to make it work (like cables)
*That impossible to open plastic protection case (I don't know the exact name of that...)
Noise
*Taxi drivers who always beep (when trying to find new customers)
*Talking too loudly in public (including on a cell phone; unless the conversation is interesting)
*Emergency vehicles that are obscenely loud (along with their dangerously distracting flashing flights; and emergency vehicles that are so poorly parked that they halt traffic unnecessarily)
Driving
*Tailgators
*People who drive dangerously fast
*People who drive impossibly slow
*Speed bumps and speed cameras
*Parking signs that are hard to figure out
*Intersections that are hard to navigate
*Traffic lights that are poorly timed
*Roads that have too many lights/stop signs (or too few)
*People who beep when you don't make a right turn on red
People's habits and actions
*Littering
*Smoking while walking (near me) or smoking near a building entrance
*People who are consistently and egregiously late
*People who don't pay attention when walking and talking on there cell phones
*People who keep on tapping your chair with their feet or encroach onto my space when seated
*People who don't know how to stop talking
Society
*Aggressive beggers
*A proliferation of offspring
*Violent crime (or any crime, really)
*Religious wackos
*Barking dogs
*The fact that fat is the new normal
Technology
*Complicated websites
*Spam mail
*Computer viruses
*Email that bounces back
*Online businesses that make customer service telephone numbers hard to find
*Customer service that keeps on transferring you
*When you go completely electronic but companies still send you stuff by snail mail
*Groups that make it difficult to remove yourself from their listserv or email blasts
*Annoying commercials (on TV) and popup ads (on computers)
Events
*Chairs that are too close together
*Introductions and presentations that are too long
*Q&A sessions where the questioner talks too long
Common products
*Pens that don't work well
*Books and articles that are too long (i.e., unnecessarily long)
*Use-by dates that are hidden or non-existant
*Instructions that aren't clear (both public and private sector problems)
Restaurants
*Ones that don't put menus online or who don't have the most recent/accurate menus online (with prices)
*Waiters who say the specials too quickly and neglect to mention prices
*When water is not filled up in a timely manner
*When proper utensils are not on the table (only for restaurants, not at home...)
Government
*Red tape, waste, and inefficency
*The fact that the government doesn't put enough effort into the simple fixes for becoming energy efficient, like weatherization of homes and promoting proper tire pressure
*States/localities that are lenient on crime
This blog is meant to capture the intersection of business, economics, politics, science, humanities, global culture, facts, figures, ideas, human nature, inventions, technology, health, food, sex...It is really an ode to life and the many things to think about and consider along the way.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
What's with all the negativity? Did you have a bad sleep?
I know that your motivation was to find a way to fix these dislikes or things that annoy you, but after listing all these, were you in a good mood or bad mood?
There are so many things that get you upset in this world - small or big, and many of these are, I think, out of your control. Granted, you can advocate for a stricter regulation (or enforcement of it) on littering or smoking, but to me, doing so would cost more of my energy and resources than trying to avoid smokers AND trying my best not let them bother me.
Therefore, I believe that having a peaceful mind that cannot be bothered by otuside (annoying) factors is a path to a happy life.
You can change yourself but not others.
Stricter regulation is one way to deal with many of the problems, but there is something that is perhaps much more effective - economic incentive. We can nudge people to stop doing many of the dangerous/obnoxious things that they do by creating incentives - rewards, tax breaks, tax penalties, etc...
Post a Comment