Sometimes, it seems, people ignore minuscule annoyances for such an extended period of time that the effort required to solve the issue is significantly less than the sum total of inconvenience caused.

Fixing the problem almost always leads to thinking “Damn, I wish I had done that earlier”. Why do people do that? Maybe everyone has a tolerance for putting up with life’s miscellaneous  annoyances and thus never really find it necessary to fix. Maybe it’s just the false perception that the time and effort required to alleviate the problem isn’t worth the 1 second inconvenience caused by the problem.

Venturing away from the abstract leads me to think of one of the most illustrative examples I can think of. My ex-roommate had a small fridge in his room for his own personal stock of beverages, eggs, and other random shit. This fridge sat on a rug which in turn naturally sat on the floor. Well actually the fridge sat right in front of the rug. The preposition matters because the door was blocked from opening by the edge of the rug… so you had to step on the rug a certain way in order to let the fridge door pass over the top of it.

I watched him struggle with that for two years, for no reason. The solution? Taking 30 seconds to put some old magazines under the fridge to prop it up enough to give it clearance over the rug. Problem solved.

Take the time to evaluate the integral of annoyance over time. Compare to the effort required to solve said annoyance. Reflect, act,  and continue with your life… only better.