Incites and Outtakes by Steve Duell

a new eBook from Steve Duell

INCITES AND OUTTAKES

- A BOOK OF BOOKS -

TOP TEN REASONS TO own THIS BOOK

EST: 28,454 words 133 pages

Stroll through any daily routine and these are the ubiquitous topics that meet your eye. These topics won't appear on the nightly news. They aren't even controversial. These incites linger and confound us daily. They are scattered along the fringe of our minds in silent wonder until they are spoken aloud. They are observations and conclusions and hopefully make us mindful of a society that can be vastly improved. These are not solutions but rather inspirations.

The content is presented as a series of short 'books'. A wide assortment of topics include Relationships, Words, Media, Waiting, Timepieces and Cultural Observances. The content is often humorous and always provocative. It's like 'Reader's Digest' for your eReader without the advertisements! It's now available through the iBookstore and for the Amazon kindle. Still waiting for the Barnes and Noble catalog.

- a brief preview -

BOOK SEVEN, A THOUGHTFUL GALLERY: WASTED TIME

Waiting. You’d think that in today’s super fast business environment that there would be a lot less waiting around. Today we enjoy cell phones and email and faxes and expressways and high occupancy vehicle lanes and mass transit and instant credit approval and cable news and satellite TV and none of these conveniences can eliminate or help us avoid standing in line. God forbid we are stuck behind someone who’s writing a check!

Ever try to call your local phone company? “For instructions in English press one. To route your call correctly press two on your touch tone phone. Choose from the following five options. Choose from the following three options. Choose from the following six options. Visit us on line or call our automated service. Please wait while we connect you with a representative. We estimate your hold time to be 6 minutes.” And that’s presuming you have called the correct department to begin.

They know we’re stuck on the phone and so they ply us with ads. Looped audio of how terrific is their new service with an occasional ‘Your call is very important to us. Stay on the line and your call will be answered in the order it was received’. It’s worse if you call your bank or your credit card people. They want to have the whole 16 digit account number right up front... and more than once!

So one day while standing in line at the post office I did some math. If you wait only 1 hour a week (a conservative estimate considering the supermarket, the bank, the gas station, the traffic lights and of course ‘hold please’) by months end you will have been in line for four hours. That’s only about 8.5 minutes a day. By the end of the year your cumulative total has exceeded 48 hours. More than two entire days spent waiting. After 20 years you’ll likely have enough time invested to enjoy a six week vacation!