Wanted: Your Stories of Aiming for Precision

If you’re in the habit of challenging yourself to get something Just Right, I want to hear about it. Plus more stick figures in peril!

(Photo by Boonchai Wedmakawand, Getty Images)

Note: Today’s post is not paywalled. Enjoy! — Paul

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My friend Al posted something interesting on Facebook the other day. He wrote (lightly edited here for clarity): “When I’m filling my tank with gas, I watch for the first dollar’s worth or so, so I can get the rhythm of the pump. Then I look away and see if I can keep the beat while I’m not watching. When the tank is full, I’ll look back and see how far off I am from the final price.”

Three of Al’s friends left comments saying that they do the same thing. I’ve never done it myself, but it definitely feels like something I can relate to. When I was in third or fourth grade, for example, I’d look away from the classroom clock, try to count exactly 60 seconds, and then look at the clock again to see how close I was. Then, when I was 14, I got a digital watch that included a stopwatch, and I’d see if I could start the stopwatch, look away, and then stop it at exactly 10 seconds flat, without any stray tenths or hundredths. When I got good at that, I tried for 20 seconds (which was much harder), and then 30 (impossible).

Something else I remember doing: If a recipe called for, say, a quarter-cup of milk, I’d sometimes get out my mom’s big Pyrex measuring cup and try to pour in the right amount without looking at the measurement markings. (If I poured out too much, I’d just pour the excess back into the milk carton.) And to this day, when I weigh myself, I try to guess what I’ll weigh before the scale tells me.

I don’t know where these things come from. Some sort of desire for precision, I guess, and maybe also a tendency to create little games and challenges out of everyday situations.

I have a feeling that Inconspicuous Consumption readers may have some similar stories to tell along these same lines. If so, please email them to me and I’ll gather the best ones into a future IC post. If you prefer that I not use your name, that’s fine — just say so.

Why am I asking for these stories? In large part because I think this is the type of private behavior that many of us don’t talk about, so we may think that nobody else engages in it. But as the responses to Al’s gas pump ritual show, these types of things are often more common than we realize. So the idea here, as with so many things regarding the inconspicu-verse, is that I think people may take some comfort in learning that they’re not alone.

Thanks in advance. I look forward to seeing your stories!

Stick Figures in Peril, Continued

Yesterday’s look at stick figures in peril prompted reader Jason Snell to send me a photo of a sign he saw in New Zealand. “I loved it so much I made a refrigerator magnet to replicate it,” he says. Check it out:

(Photo by Jason Snell)

Reader Johnny F likewise sent in a contribution. He saw this sign on a train during a trip to Italy:

(Photo by Johnny F)

Also, I mentioned in yesterday’s post that reader Elizebeth Fox was the one who told me about the Stick Figures in Peril album on Flickr, but I didn’t realize until after the post had already been published that she had actually contributed some photos to that Flickr project. It seems only fair that I should share her stick pics, right? First, there’s a classic machinery-peril sign:

(Photo by Elizabeth Fox)

Then there are three signs that Elizabeth took in 2006 at what was then the Sacramento River Cats’ minor league ballpark (which is currently being used by MLB’s A’s):

(Photo by Elizabeth Fox)

(Photo by Elizabeth Fox)

(Photo by Elizabeth Fox)

Thanks again, Elizabeth!

Paul Lukas has been obsessing over the inconspicuous for most of his life, and has been writing about those obsessions for more than 30 years. You can contact him here.