Faster Technology Still Makes Us Wait
Faster isn’t better. It’s just sooner.
Technology keeps promising to save us time. Faster computers, faster internet, faster checkout, faster delivery, faster everything. Somehow we still spend an impressive amount of our lives waiting for technology that was specifically designed to eliminate waiting.
The self-checkout lane is a perfect example. Scan your own groceries, bag them yourself, pay without a cashier, and get out faster. At least that’s the theory.
Then the machine detects an unexpected item, rejects something you scanned correctly, questions your bagging technique, or flashes the technological phrase that has become part of modern life: “Please wait for assistance.”
That same contradiction shows up in Technology’s Time Borrowing Program. Technology saves time right up until it decides it needs some of that time back. And Optimization Makes Failure Happen Faster reminds us that making a system more efficient doesn’t necessarily make the result any better.
Speed is impressive. Convenience is useful. Neither guarantees progress.
Sometimes technology just gets you to the waiting part sooner.
Explore more Chad Geepeety™ cartoons about customer service, automation, artificial intelligence, and technology making everyday life faster in surprisingly slow ways.
