2017 Spring May 8 Monday

63 degrees this morning, 34:46 minute walk

Hopefully this will be the coolest it will be for awhile this morning.  63 degrees is kind of the transition to warmer temperature, although really 75 degrees is what is the start of what I consider to be warm.

Pace this morning was 1 second slower than my current goal. Again, I thought I was going faster than that, but it is hard to gauge how I am doing so I am glad to have the Watch keeping the “pace”, which is an accurate reflection of how fast I am really walking.  

Listening to a history of Europe (actually WW1 & 2)) from 1914 to 1949.  I am always surprised when I listen to/read history and see the same destructive trends being repeated again and again. 

I don’t know if we “learn” from history but we obviously should pay attention to history.  We have the power now to be a lot more destructive than 1914 and it appears much of our behavior still hasn’t changed. 

I was surprised to learn that the first aerial bombing (from a dirigible) was in 1911.  

Started reading the actual book “Algorithms of Live by”, which helps reinforce what I listened too.    

Read the chapter about how companies spend literally billions (at least) on figuring out “what makes us click” the “buy” button.

As I may have mentioned before, I feel “tricked” when I read about how prices are changed based on a variety of factors. 

I have learned to “stealth buy” before I buy anything on the internet, checking prices without signing in and using my VPN, so I can hopefully avoid arbitrary pricing.  

Of course the worst offenders are the airlines.  I don’t doubt why many people hate the airlines with their trickery, price changes,  excessive fees and continued reducing seat size and flights with only the thought of how much they can cheat out of customers, not the service they can  provide (unless you have the money to fly first class of fly a lot). 

Actually it has gotten a lot harder to fly and a lot easier to drive than  to deal with the multi-stop flights due to the cut back in capacity by the airlines.  Hopefully competition will take care of it as new airlines start that provide decent service, which is how it is supposed to work.  But…..

When I read about the airlines and some of their abusive tactics, I am reminded of the study where students “played” the role of prison guards and prisoners.  They had to stop the study because the “guards” had become so abusive.  

While I fully understand the need for extreme security precautions, I think the abusive behavior by the airlines is a result of allowing the wrong parties to take responsibility for security.  They do a lot of nasty actions in the name of security.

I should note, that, as far as the airline personnel go, I have almost always received excellent courteous service with only a few instances of rude or unhelpful behavior.  I almost always leave a personal contact with the airline personnel themselves on a positive note, it is the “faceless bureaucracy” which I have the problems with, which is too often the case.

I think the decisions makers are so far from the customers they lose track of the purpose of their company.  

Start of the “work week”.  Again, I am just amazed to write “May 8” and  realize how fast the year is going.

That’s it for now, Monday, May 8, 2017.