Are people really stupid or just not paying attention? This is the dilemma I grapple with on an almost daily basis. I suppose the answer would be in the realm of the "is the glass half full or half empty" genre or maybe it depends on whether one considers one's self an optimist or a pessimist? As I get older, I surprisingly am finding myself leaning toward the 'not paying attention' camp, for to believe otherwise would fill me with a hopeless sense of despair and alienation which quite frankly I just don't want to deal with.

Half of my day is spent in the realm of telephone technical support. I fix problems, or at least I try to. Half the battle in any telephone position is getting the person on the other end to put together a coherent sentence. I generally don't have high expectations of my users. I require only 3 basic things. 1) That they know their own friggin' name 2) That they know what product they need help with and 3) That they know why they called in the first place. Remarkably, 7 out of every ten people calling in ( and yes I tracked this one day) failed to meet 2 or more of the 3 requirments.

I prefer my morning job - driving a bus - it's relaxing and generally stress free. People can be forgiven for getting on a wrong bus in a big city. The poor homeless man staggering aboard with no fare can be forgiven for evading payment. Like most people, he just wants to get from point A to point B. Working in two jobs with such contrasting atmospheres is unique to me. But I'll leave it for the Teeming Masses out there to answer my first question.