At Least It's A Skill

I think most people are fans of efficiency. The number of tasks people have to do versus the number of tasks they would like to do is really skewed the wrong way and so the faster we can get through those tedious errands, the better. Still, I think there is a point people reach in which they decide they would rather not be too good at something because certain skills are not always appreciated by general society. For example, the other afternoon I had to run to CVS to buy some soda, because my addiction to Diet Pepsi is well known and that is where it is on sale this week. Normally making a trip just to purchase soda is not that big a deal but that is when it is a trip to the grocery store, where everyone buys their soda. Even I admit there is something slightly off about buying soda in bulk from a drug store. Yet not only did I go in and buy the maximum 5 bottles allowed, I brought in my own reusable shopping bag that I typically take grocery shopping with me and I had the correct amount of dollars in my hand, proving I have done this many times before. On top of that I bagged the soda directly in the aisle, which meant I just had to show the woman at the register the contents of my bag and saved her the motion of taking the bottles out of a basket and bagging them herself, reducing the entire time of the transaction from about 2 minutes to 30 seconds. Sure, that is valuable time of my life which I can now spend doing other things, but is this really the area where I want to be at my most efficient? Shouldn't I concentrate on working better so that I am not still editing material an hour before my deadline? Seriously, being super-prepared to buy soda is not the kind of operation a person should be really proud to excel at. Still, I guess it could be worse...

[Editor's note: For some reason the code for when this should start is not working. So, I'll just tell you the bit you want to pay attention to starts at 25:20 and ends around 29:40. I love Patten Oswalt, but there is no reason for you to listen to the entire show.]