You’re preparing for an appointment.

You realize you may be late. Then you realize you can text that you’re on your way. You think: keeping them waiting isn’t so bad knowing you had a problem and will be a few minutes late.

Whew! That was close. You almost faced results for being late but got out of it.

When you’re texting you’ll be late, it feels like a minor get-out-of-jail-free card.

But consider the behavior it motivates.

The big picture is that

texting enables everyone to be late as long as they text on the way, which results in a culture of lateness—more people late more often.

Then again, my model that everyone gets fifteen minutes works pretty well.

• ← It takes effort to learn to eat more vegetables and legumes
• I’m going to watch a lot more TV →