2 ms·

That is an interesting thought... As a non-USA person here I was also amazed with some of these comments. But I am not sure it is only about "subsidizing" oth

That is an interesting thought... As a non-USA person here I was also amazed with some of these comments. But I am not sure it is only about "subsidizing" others (which it also is). If you read a lot of these comments, they go into great lengths into describing their particular live choices, their very deliberate little decisions they make while traveling all the time, and how these makes them special. I feel that there is another side to this individualism: the pride on ones choices, on being unique and in some way, standing out of the masses through their clever use of their options. It reminded me about another thing that surprised me in the USA: food menus are lengthy, and everything is customizable! You have to choose ingredients, topping, side, everything! I guess, for a lot of USAmericans this feels empowering. Interestingly, coming from the other side of the Atlantic, it had the opposite effect on me: I felt overwhelmed, that I was required to do make decisions and do too much thinking, that at the end, it was the chef's job to offer me a menu with dishes that make sense and taste good! In fact in Europe, good restaurants tend to have very few options, you go there because you acknowledge that the person that designed the menu knows more about those dishes than you... I guess, I am also ok about "subsidizing" others... I know that some days I will eat at the flight, some days I won't, some days I will need extra luggage, some days I won't... It is just easier if we don't have to go through all the bureaucracy of managing these decisions. It is cheaper too, since the accounting and planning becomes easier. Some people might be getting be getting more or less out of it, but it evens out with time anyways. I can get my "feeling of importance" by other means. There is something more this might show us about the "customization" vs "just works" in how different people prefer their software. But I will think about this some other day...

busterarm 10y ago
American here but I'm with you on the food menu thing. This is a red hot issue for me. People who make food should have an opinion about how it should taste. I hate all this "have it your way" bullshit. The menu for this salad place gives me panic attacks: http://choptsalad.com/ http://choptsalad.com/ Culturally we've lost the idea of tastemakers, whether it's food, music, film, or whatever. Everyone's free to enjoy what they like and having any kind of sophistication is faux pas. Having strong opinions about what is good and what sucks will quickly get the ire of others.
- hx87 10y ago
  > Having strong opinions about what is good and what sucks will quickly get the ire of others. Expressing said opinion might get the ire of other. Besides, Americans seem to enjoy ire, so that's not necessarily a bad thing.
eli_gottlieb 10y ago
>It is just easier if we don't have to go through all the bureaucracy of managing these decisions. Yep. American business seems to have convinced the population to recategorize management and decision-making onto ourselves. It's a perfect example of "shadow work": work that was moved from a company's employees to the customer in order to de-skill the job. I'm theoretically fine with taking a trip by booking a flight, booking a rental car, and booking a hotel room all separately. I did it just this past summer. Being able to give some loose descriptions of what we needed to a travel agent and then just get an email asking for final approval would have been kinda nice, though, especially if it makes economies of scale available so that lower-end customers can have nice things too. As it was, booking my honeymoon was a bit of a hassle.
dagenleg 10y ago
Oh, very apt! I think the highly developed American individualism is a fitting thing to bring up in this discussion. Good point about the luggage\food, which you need only in some cases. I guess meticulously optimizing every aspect of the flight could be seen as a way of staying ahead of the curve and in this context not wanting to pay for someone else's baggage is understandable. If you do think of yourself as just an average "customer" (and majority of other does) then the costs will even out in the end.

busterarm 10y ago

American here but I'm with you on the food menu thing. This is a red hot issue for me. People who make food should have an opinion about how it should taste. I hate all this "have it your way" bullshit. The menu for this salad place gives me panic attacks: http://choptsalad.com/ http://choptsalad.com/ Culturally we've lost the idea of tastemakers, whether it's food, music, film, or whatever. Everyone's free to enjoy what they like and having any kind of sophistication is faux pas. Having strong opinions about what is good and what sucks will quickly get the ire of others.

hx87 10y ago
> Having strong opinions about what is good and what sucks will quickly get the ire of others. Expressing said opinion might get the ire of other. Besides, Americans seem to enjoy ire, so that's not necessarily a bad thing.

eli_gottlieb 10y ago

>It is just easier if we don't have to go through all the bureaucracy of managing these decisions. Yep. American business seems to have convinced the population to recategorize management and decision-making onto ourselves. It's a perfect example of "shadow work": work that was moved from a company's employees to the customer in order to de-skill the job. I'm theoretically fine with taking a trip by booking a flight, booking a rental car, and booking a hotel room all separately. I did it just this past summer. Being able to give some loose descriptions of what we needed to a travel agent and then just get an email asking for final approval would have been kinda nice, though, especially if it makes economies of scale available so that lower-end customers can have nice things too. As it was, booking my honeymoon was a bit of a hassle.

dagenleg 10y ago

Oh, very apt! I think the highly developed American individualism is a fitting thing to bring up in this discussion. Good point about the luggage\food, which you need only in some cases. I guess meticulously optimizing every aspect of the flight could be seen as a way of staying ahead of the curve and in this context not wanting to pay for someone else's baggage is understandable. If you do think of yourself as just an average "customer" (and majority of other does) then the costs will even out in the end.