Relative Positioning.

The taxi driver, cruising next to me on the freeway, had an uncanny habit of matching every small variation in speed I made. Perhaps it was a mild effort to prevent me from changing lanes, though more likely it was just a general focus on maintaining their position relative to the car next to them, rather than where they are overall.

Often this attitude works in your favour; You need to keep up with the other cars, and make sure someone isn't wildly veering in the wrong direction. They might cause an accident for all of you.

There are some drawbacks, however. Your focus should be on *your* destination, and how you're going to get there. The car next to you probably doesn't have the same destination, or the same time frame. It stands to reason that you can't get to where you need to be by following everyone around you.

Perhaps, though, some of them *are* heading the same way. So why not ask for a lift? Or car pool? Who knows, that might even save time and energy for everyone.

Staying Visible?

This is a photo taken of a slide at a very, *very* important presentation in my workplace. It concerns the rollout of a certain software infrastructure that will change the way our organisation works. It has the potential to completely revolutionise our work practices. It's great stuff.

Except the slide is illegible. Though taken from a camera phone, the quality of the slide is actually quite well represented. I couldn't read it at all in person, and I was sitting in the front row, around four metres from the screen.

If you want people to buy in to your revolutionary idea, make sure they can understand what you're saying.

Two Taps.

This sort of thing really bugs me, even though it happens all too often. Walk in to most public bathrooms and you'll see, on the sink, two taps; "hot" and "cold".

Tell me, without thinking about it too hard, under what circumstances would a person want to wash their hands under *either* scalding hot or freezing cold water, but not some combination of the two?

Someone, somewhere, didn't take the twelve seconds to think about the experience. This says a great deal about who they are, what their priorities are, and the kind of place they work in.