4 ms·

Let me use some terms from criminal law here, to dispute your claim (excuse?) of them 'intentionally' being a jerk. There are three kinds of 'intent' (roughly,

by roel_v 11y ago

Let me use some terms from criminal law here, to dispute your claim (excuse?) of them 'intentionally' being a jerk. There are three kinds of 'intent' (roughly, 'mens rea'): - 'objective' (it's a lousy translation but I don't think there is a better work for it in English); this is when you find a man in bed with your wife and you want to kill him, so you put a bullet in his head. No discussion here. - 'knowledge of necessity': when the crime is not something you intended to do, but you knew that it would happen if you did something to get to another object. The text book example of this is a ship owner who wanted to collect the insurance money for his ship, so he sank it; the crew drowned. He didn't 'intent' to kill the crew, it was just a side effect of his actions in sinking the ship (he knew they were on it). - 'conditional intent', in many US jurisdictions aka 'willfull blindness': this one is the fuzziest. It's when you knowingly and willingly took the chance that someone would die (or other crime would happen). Text book example: 'eggshell skull' (Wikipedia has a whole page; in short: guy throws a slipper at wife's head, wife has a medical condition that causes her to have a skull that is literally as thick (and fragile) as an eggshell; guy didn't know; slipper breaks skull, killing wife - still murder). (I'm not interested in discussion on legal technicalities like the nuances of tort law under various legal regimes and mens rea as a precondition for qualification as murder) So, to come back to the point: people who are chronically late know that they are late. They could do something about it; like adding extra time to their estimates of home long things take, or not doing certain things when they know they're late already (like the 'getting coffee' mentioned in the GP, that infuriates me - my wife does it too, making me go through customs with a screaming toddler and 20kg suitcase in one hand, and coffee in the other once, but I digress). These people just choose to not work on their flaws and inflict their (easily fixable!) bad habits on others. That is most certainly 'intentional' in all but the most literal interpretation of the word.

UK-AL 11y ago
You can work on it, it doesn't mean its going to happen. Many things in life are inherently unpredictable. The number 1 cause of lateness is probably commutes. if your commute has a range of 50 minutes, to two hours. The only way to avoid being late is coming in hour early everyday. That's a massive cost. Other stuff that can happen like, your webcam not working for an internet meeting, and so on. Or an important client holding you up, before you before a meeting. People aren't inherently being dicks, they're struggling to cope unpredictable nature of the world.
- mildbow 11y ago
  That's hilarious. They aren't trying to predict the stock market. They are trying to predict commutes (easy) and their current schedule(easier). Why is it that it's always the same people? Does the universe have it out for them? To me this is like the weight loss debate: yes a ton (but not many :)) of people have glandular issues/genetics/blahblah that makes them unable to lose weight. But most people saying they can't lose weight are just making up excuses. edit: Why the downvotes? Downvotes != disagreement
  - roel_v 11y ago
    Probably fatties that are always late downvoting you :)
    - mildbow 11y ago
      Worse, it's probably the fatties and/or the chronically late :) Maybe my joke rubbed them the wrong way[0]. [0] " a ton (but not many) " => implying that they individually weigh a lot so doesn't take many to get to a ton.
  - UK-AL 11y ago
    Probably because some people don't mind wasting 30 minutes of there unpaid time coming in early? Or they live within 20 minutes? And predicting commutes is not easy. My commute can range between 50 minutes and two hours. Depending on Accidents, roadworks etcs. If you have short distance to travel, you are less likely to come across this.
    - mildbow 11y ago
      Your commute has ranged between those values, but do you think that the mode commute time isn't a good indicator? Or maybe you can use the 75 percentile time? Are you really saying you don't have a good judge of about how long your commute will take most days? No one is saying you have to be right on time every single time. But we do have a problem with chronically late people.

by roel_v 11y ago

UK-AL 11y ago

You can work on it, it doesn't mean its going to happen. Many things in life are inherently unpredictable. The number 1 cause of lateness is probably commutes. if your commute has a range of 50 minutes, to two hours. The only way to avoid being late is coming in hour early everyday. That's a massive cost. Other stuff that can happen like, your webcam not working for an internet meeting, and so on. Or an important client holding you up, before you before a meeting. People aren't inherently being dicks, they're struggling to cope unpredictable nature of the world.

mildbow 11y ago
That's hilarious. They aren't trying to predict the stock market. They are trying to predict commutes (easy) and their current schedule(easier). Why is it that it's always the same people? Does the universe have it out for them? To me this is like the weight loss debate: yes a ton (but not many :)) of people have glandular issues/genetics/blahblah that makes them unable to lose weight. But most people saying they can't lose weight are just making up excuses. edit: Why the downvotes? Downvotes != disagreement
- roel_v 11y ago
  Probably fatties that are always late downvoting you :)
  - mildbow 11y ago
    Worse, it's probably the fatties and/or the chronically late :) Maybe my joke rubbed them the wrong way[0]. [0] " a ton (but not many) " => implying that they individually weigh a lot so doesn't take many to get to a ton.
- UK-AL 11y ago
  Probably because some people don't mind wasting 30 minutes of there unpaid time coming in early? Or they live within 20 minutes? And predicting commutes is not easy. My commute can range between 50 minutes and two hours. Depending on Accidents, roadworks etcs. If you have short distance to travel, you are less likely to come across this.
  - mildbow 11y ago
    Your commute has ranged between those values, but do you think that the mode commute time isn't a good indicator? Or maybe you can use the 75 percentile time? Are you really saying you don't have a good judge of about how long your commute will take most days? No one is saying you have to be right on time every single time. But we do have a problem with chronically late people.