Distances are hard

My high school chemistry class spent an inordinate amount of time on unit conversions. At least, I thought it was an inordinate amount of time. Who cares about moles versus grams when you are in eleventh grade?

Turns out, I had a much better chemistry teacher than most people. The school lesson that came from appreciating mass is not the same unit as temperature translates very nicely to the life lesson that distance is not the same unit as time.

I recently talked to a guy who told me he would be willing to commute up to 20 miles, but then, in the same sentence, said he wasn't willing to go to XX city because "it's too far. I don't wanna work that far away."

Knowing the region fairly well, I knew that that city XX was nowhere near 20 miles away from the guy's home address. But, because I am Yours Truly and rather petty, I googled it just to give myself the satisfaction of seeing, on the screen, that the guy was an idiot. XX city was a mere 10 miles from his home location. Since I can also do basic math, I know that 10 miles is half the distance the guy just told me he would be willing to commute.

I presume the guy was only willing to commute 10 MINUTES not 10 MILES. That’s a big difference, and I don't think he’s going to figure it out anytime soon.

I choose also to not comment on the fact that the guy was willing to drive 20 city miles but balked at anything more than 10 minutes. Poor sap probably ended up with a 45 minute commute and is still scratching his head as to how it takes so long to get to work.