Showing posts with label perfection. Show all posts
Showing posts with label perfection. Show all posts

Wednesday, 23 April 2008

Too perfect

Well, I'm back in Denmark where I am born and lived the first half of my life (given I will live up until around 70). Here is a small snippet of conversation from the train platform of the airport, that I picked up:

Her: Great, the train is here 17.04
Him: Yes.
Her: How long for us to get to the central station?
Him: Hmm, I'm not sure, but I think we can catch the 17.25 from the central to Roskilde
Her: Then call your mother and tell her we will be in Roskilde 17.54

My greek friends wouldn't believe this. They would find it laughable, admirable or just plain weird, but they would have a really hard time believing it. The small conversation reflects some things about the DK.
1. The use of precise time measurements show a deep trust in the train systems ability to operate on time.
2. There are people who know the train schedule by heart.
3. They are going to announce to the mother the exact minute of their arrival. Every minute counts. Time must be precious.

This thing reminded me a little of why I'm certainly not moving back to the DK ever. I live very badly with this design of a country to attain operational perfection. It just doesn't sit well with my private psych system. I do like an amount of chaos and unpredictability. Denmark is just too perfect for me.

Disclaimer: Don't use the train times specified above, as they are quoted from my memory and almost certainly wrong.
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