Over the years, I've told colleagues and friends about things I have seen or experienced. Many times, people have said that I should write them down so that they won't be lost and forgotten, since some of them might be useful parts of our history. I've been writing them down, without being sure what I would do with them. I decided to gradually post them on this website, and see what reactions I get. I suggest reading from the bottom up (starting with the August 2017 post "The Meritocracy"). Thoughtful and kind feedback would be useful for me, and would help me to revise the exposition to make it as useful as possible. I hope that while you read my stories you will ask yourself "What can I learn from this?" I'm particularly interested in knowing what you see as the point of the story, or what you take away from it. Please send feedback to asilverb@gmail.com. Thanks for taking the time to read and hopefully reflect on them!

I often run the stories past the people I mention, even when they are anonymized, to get their feedback and give them a chance to correct the record or ask for changes. When they tell me they're happy to be named, I sometimes do so. When I give letters as pseudonyms, there is no correlation between those letters and the names of the real people.

Sunday, July 10, 2022

California Time

"My wife and I will pick you up at your hotel at 6 and take you to dinner," said the department chair during my job interview.

He had already picked me up at my hotel several times during my visit, and he always arrived a half hour after the appointed time. Each time, I patiently waited at the curb for him to swing by.

This time, out of curiousity, I asked him how long it takes to drive from his home to my hotel. "Fifteen minutes," he replied. Then why was he always a half hour late? I decided not to ask, it being a job interview and all.

After dinner that last evening, he dropped his wife at home before taking me to my hotel. I timed the drive. The hotel was about 25 minutes from his house, if there's no traffic.

Now that I've lived in southern California where people are self-absorbed, I think I understand what was going on. "I'll pick you up at 6 o'clock" means that at 6 o'clock he starts getting ready to pick me up. 

It's like when people know they'll have a Zoom call at 6 pm. That means that at 6 pm they look at their watches, walk over to their computers, open their email, and start looking for the Zoom link. They don't show up on the call until 5 or 10 after.

Perhaps my question should have been "what time do you need to leave home, in order to pick me up at 6?" But that might have confused him. And it might look as if it's all about me.
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