SMF 10/10/12 Time is Money.

Hi again,

I'm back from the DMV.  0 for 3 after 3 hours of waiting.  I've determined that the adage, "Time is Money" is the truth.  I know it's not that revelatory, but every time my life is wasted I think about it and wonder what I could have been doing with that time that I was forced to use for nonsense.  For instance, if, instead of lines and such, the DMV or other places where waiting is a problem allowed you to make appointments online, how much of our time would be saved?  If you assume that my time today was worth $10/hr, that's 30 bucks wasted.  Now multiply by all of those in the room with me - we're at at least $3000, PER DAY, of time that could be better spent.  We have to, as a society, get smarter about what we spend our time on, and how we apply it.  If just today's time was spent doing something productive, a stream or riverbed could have been cleaned, some kindergarten kids could have been read to, or whatever other community service you could dream up could have been accomplished.  Instead, we wasted time that could have been turned into money, if somebody could take the time to set up the process in a more efficient manner.  Hire an actuary and a few programmers for a couple weeks - I bet the whole system could be revamped so less time was wasted.

With the advent of smartphones, this could be even easier.  For instance, checking into a southwest flight online saves time AND money, because the hassle of figuring out where people are to sit is taken care of by the passengers themselves.  Similarly, if there was an online dmv signup, I could have figured out exactly which lines I'd have needed, and when they weren't as busy.  Efficiency is beautiful, and we have the technology to achieve it.  So what makes us not do so?  I think it was probably just complacency.  It's easier to do something the way it's always been done instead of innovating.  It's also less fun, efficient, and probably less cheap.

Can anybody suggest any better alternatives to common problems?  I think we all have that ability; we just need to apply ourselves to the problems at hand and get them taken care of.  We have the technology - we just need the will.

Have a good one,

~Mark