So I was supposed to write a review of Spice & Wolf volume 3 for today. As you might have noticed at this point, I did not do so. I’ve not read the entire book yet. I can only apologize. Instead have this dumb post I wrote instead.
And the award for dumbest idea for a blogpost I’ve ever had goes to….
But hear me out though. I’ve been delivering mail for a very long time now, almost seven years, and one of the first things I realized is that the first few weeks are rough. You don’t know what you’re doing, you’re trying to work at the same speed as your experienced coworkers but there’s just no way. Now I won’t claim it’s a difficult job since it really isn’t. The mail goes in the mailbox that matches the address on it, simple as can be. If a parcel has a barcode on it you scan it, and there’s some other basic rules for returning mail that’s sorted wrong or if a mailbox is full etc.
But to get your mail ready before you reach the door, keep an eye on your parcels and most importantly to find out the route that’s most efficient, takes some learning.
So today, while working, I had a dumb thought. Delivering mail is a lot like speedrunning. You have your routes, which you try to improve upon. You find out the optimal way to hold your mail, where I park my bike, what goes in which bag and then which route to walk. Obviously, a lot of things have a routine to them, but I like working efficiently. It’s counterproductive in my case, since I get paid for the hours I work, so if I take a little bit longer, I get paid a little bit more. But I wouldn’t feel good about working slower. I like being efficient even if it’s to my own detriment. I’m obviously not actually running or anything, that’d be weird and kind of stupid. But I do like improving efficiency. Today on one of my routes I reshuffled some mail, saving maybe thirty seconds because of the way I like to park my bike. I was pretty pleased with myself.
Sometimes I wonder why I only realized I was autistic when I was in my late teens, really should have seen it coming. Either way, thanks for humoring my dumb ideas, see you next time.
Opal Kaharis 