Okay, Matt. I would like to request your permission to have an awkward conversation. I felt like that was sort of a standing permission granted kind of thing, but sure does that mean it's gonna be awkwarder than normal? Yes.
Yes. I mean, we're still gonna be wearing shirts. It's not like physically awkward. Since you're like here with me.
There's something I want to talk about. However, I feel like I'm not allowed to talk about it because if I bring it up, then people are going to assume certain things. This is tantalizing. So I don't know how to I don't know how to broach this topic, but are you in?
If people are hearing this, then the answer was yes. Okay, great. Let's talk about it. Okay, so you're here physically in Alabama, which is great.
Thank you. And I've got this little list of things I want to talk about. And one of the things I want to talk about actually happened to you and I watched it happen. And this is what happened.
We ran out for a burger. And we went to one burger restaurant. And we wanted the food from one restaurant and the drink from the other. So we went back to the other restaurant for the drink.
And we went in because I had the trailer on the truck. So we went inside to get the drink. And you graciously decided to pay for it. Thank you.
And we got two drinks and you got the milkshake and we went to pay. And it was a kiosk. There was no human there. Right?
Right. And you paid. And you know exactly what I'm about to say. Because I saw it happen.
Oh gosh. It is uncomfortable. It is uncomfortable. So the bill came to $10.49.
Okay. There's not a human at the counter. None. You swipe and you go to pay and then it happened.
The screen came up and said, how much of a tip would you like to give? 15, 20, 25%. Which of those percentages seems best for the service you've received? That's the inherent question that was built in.
Yes. What was interesting about the situation is there was no human at the counter. No visible human anywhere in the whole store here. The sounds of humans somewhere back there.
But they weren't at the counter. No. In fact, because we just ordered a drink, a self-serve drink, it said that on the screen. Yes.
The exercise was we walked to the drink machine, we grab a drink and we fill it up ourselves. Literally no human involved. Other than someone being paid at an hourly rate, connected the soda machine and stocked the cups. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Are you implying that you shouldn't give a tip? I'm trying to imply that we are a long way removed from a human being involved in our process. Are you saying? I thought I was going to talk about how important it was to provide tips.
Because I'm a generous person. Well, I tipped. I tipped. I still did.
I know, but I watched how you did it. And you did something very similar to what I did. Wait a minute. You're going to judge the way I finally talked to myself into tipping, even though it doesn't make any sense.
Yeah, walk me through what you did. Because I saw it and I have... So this is not a new thing. In 2018, the Wall Street Journal wrote an article.
This was a lady named Jennifer Levitz. October 17th, 2018. The title of the article is, You Want 20% for Handing Me a Muffin, the awkward etiquette of iPad tipping. I guess this is the question.
I am a generous tipper. I think you know this about me. Do you know this about me? I know this about you.
Okay. Very generous. Because I worked food services. I worked.
Where did you work? I worked my first job as a Burger King. Oh, really? And then I did Pizza Delivery Forever.
Remember, I delivered a Mr. T. Michael Jordan. Yeah, that's right.
Yeah. So pizza delivery. Oh my goodness. Man, that is a serious tipping job.
You know how, like, when you're doing Halloween candy stuff and you go to the one house and they get full-sized candy bars? Mm-hmm. I bet there's some phone numbers when they call the pizza delivery place. They're just like, what?
Mine. Well, that's what it was for me whenever M. Jordan and the address would pop up. Like, that comes off the little dot matrix printer.
Oh, I got that one. No, you can take my next one. I'll just wait one. I'll take the next one.
It's fine. Yeah, I got to go bathroom. You take this one. I'll get the next one.
How many times did you deliver pizza to Michael Jordan twice? Literally. Really? Did he tip well?
Not amazing. Reasonable. But reasonable. Yeah.
That's what you expect. So he had a guy who wore a Bulls Championship jacket who would always come in to the store and do carry out. And we knew that was Michael Jordan's guy. Really?
And then when you go to Jordan's house, both times I got the guy who we knew from all the times he came in. But the one time we went up stupid and I was like, oh, here you go. And I was gaming the pizza. The gates have a giant gold 23 on it.
You can see like a inflatable kind of basketball area. He did putting greens. Like, you know who's house you're at. And I just went with it.
I mean, you can see like trophies right in the front door from who knows what? Olympic gold medals or whatever he had won at that point. And the first time, I don't know. I was kind of shrunken the world.
I was kind of shrunken the moment a little bit. And the second time, same dude answered. And I was like, are you M Jordan? I'm sorry.
This is for an M Jordan. And then just MJ walked through behind and he heard it. And he kind of just gave me the little bit of a nod. Like, I see what you're doing.
Yeah. Yeah. And he was also the Halloween house. Everybody from college would go to Jordan's house because there'd be somebody there that would very lavishly provide treats to anybody who would treat their.
Yeah. I mean, I don't feel like you could do that today because he probably wouldn't answer his door because somebody would want to selfie with him. Right. It would probably be different in the age of cell phones, wouldn't it?
Well, yeah, I would think so. And he was, I mean, our college was just down the street. And so he'd come down there and be a little deal with the folks that ran the gym there where they wouldn't make him doing kind of security credentials. Like the students had to have passes and stickers.
He could just come in, park in a special spot down behind the gym, shoot early in the morning and just use the court down there. I don't know why he did. Maybe it was while he was under construction. But when my sister was there, she was down there one day, only kid down there shooting baskets and just shot around the munching room.
That's awesome. Just half an hour shooting baskets with Jordan. Why not? Right?
Yeah, one. So cool. That's very cool. Okay.
So Michael Jordan, obviously rich. What kind of tip did you expect? Back then, that 10% was generous. Okay.
Yeah. For me, when I was delivering pizza, if you got 10%, that was great. The dining staff, same thing. If a table gave 10%.
That was solid, but people were starting to say like, it really should be 12. I remember when people started to say, should be 12. Really. And then 15.
And then 20. And then 25. And I have now seen a tip machine that suggests 30. You saw that 15, 25, 30.
Those were the three buttons or gave me 20, 20, 30. Excuse me. What was it on? Was it like a coffee or a?
Yeah, something like that. You would just pick up donuts. I don't remember. Yeah.
But this is within six months traveling. I don't think it was in an airport. I think I was traveling my car when I saw it. How do you feel about that?
Let me say this first. Before we get going, let me say this. I saw on Twitter the other day, this individual that I follow, the individual was having to defend themselves on Twitter because they, I don't know if they were on a podcast or they tweeted or something. It was clear.
I could read the history from the tweet. He was saying, Hey, I'm happy to jump on and talk about this with you. Because the implication was, Hey, this individual is wealthy or comfortable or whatever. And this individual that was comfortable was complaining about the escalation of the iPad tip thing.
And he had a crowd of accusers that was accusing him of being greedy or stingy or Hey, you've been blessed. Why are you trying to keep the other people down by not just being generous? You know what I mean? So it was kind of a, Oh, well, you're not Robin Hood.
You're you're more like, uh, who's the sheriff? The sheriff from Nottingham. Yeah. So there was an accusatory tone of the crowd against the individual that was saying things like, Hey, you know, what?
Are you, are you just not generous? And the person was standing up for themselves. Good. So I would say this.
So knowing that. You decided to do this episode. Yeah. Wow.
I want you to be the bad guy. There's a guy I saw. Uh, he got hit in the face with a claw hammer. It hurt him real bad.
So anyways, I got this claw hammer here. Could you? You know what I'm saying? Like, I, uh, I think it's important to be able to, um, bring up a conversation.
In such a way that's intelligent and respectful. And if you think something's a little out of whack, I think it's appropriate to be able to address it because if there is no negative feedback in the system and it goes, they'll go chaotic. That's, I don't know. That's not humanities.
That's just math. If you have a control system and you, you have positive feedback and you have a negative feedback. If you don't have the negative feedback and you don't arrive at truth, you just go chaotic and it'll ramp out of control and pre-sen you'll have 300% like the speed wobble on the, uh, skateboard going down a hill too fast. Similar.
You see the calamity videos on YouTube. You need it. You need to dampen it out a little bit. And so my question is these, these articles that I'm reading when I started just looking briefly into this be like, surely I'm not the only one noticing this.
Um, I'm seeing articles from back in 2018. Like I just read, and then I've only noticed it escalating in the past six months. The way it usually manifests is there'll be a system. It'll be clover or square and I'll make my purchase.
And then I'll be able to do that. Um, I'll be able to do that. Um, I'll be able to do that. Um, I'll be able to do that.
Um, I'll be able to do that in a recently was at a concert and, um, it was a bin rector concert and I love bin rector. It's, it's rare. You mentioned musicians and then I intuitively nod as though I know who you're talking about, but then quickly realized that my nod was a lie and I don't know who you're talking about. I don't know who bin rector is.
Bin rector is an artist that my wife introduced me to. Um, I looked at, you know, my calendar. I've been studying and stuff at school and, you know, I set up a study appointment at Thursday night one time and, uh, I pulled up my calendar and I was like, yeah, I can be there. Let me.
Oh wait. It says date night on my calendar. It never says date night on my calendar. So I called Tara.
Hey, um, there's a date night on my calendar. Hey, um, there's a date on my calendar. Um, uh, uh, I was like, I was like, uh, I was at the date night on my calendar. What, what is that?
And she goes, oh, you're taking me to a concert. I said, I would love to take you to a concert. Who are we going to see? She said, Oh, bin rector.
I said, okay, I don't, I don't know who that is. And she goes, yeah, you've heard his songs. I played them for you. And she played me a couple of songs.
They're great. There's one song called live in my best life. Really good. He has a large red.
I don't know what you call a mascot that comes on the stage and plays piano with him. I like that. Yeah. I need to hear the song, because right now immediately you said, living in my best life.
No, live in my best life. I live in my biz, k-dah, cuz mine went right to the Rebecca Black melody from Friday, live in my best life And so I need to move on from that cuz it immediately struck me wrong. Okay, so you're saying it's good. It's very good All right, so you went to the show sorry.
Yeah, but I'm a director. I would like to introduce you to Ben Rector So he strikes me as a very very very socially intelligent person who's also a savant with music very impressive Okay, yeah, the dude on stage that was a college kid He's like hey, I'm going on tour I need a saxophone artist and so you know he got in touch with a guy on Instagram and had this young kid and And what I liked about a show is that it wasn't pretentious or overly scripted He left he left spots in the show for chaos to happen and he you know, he allowed turbulence It was really good anyway, Ben Rector. So at the intermission or I guess it was before the show I said, babe Let's go get you a shirt. Let's go get you a Ben Rector shirt.
Yeah, I love that I was like, yeah, let's go pick one out so we pick one out and this is not to say anything about the tour or Ben Rector or anything I believe this was a function of the software that they use to sell their merch Okay, and so I bought Tara the 30 or $35 shirt. I forget the price That's a lot for sure. It's a lot for sure. But you pay a little more for merch Yeah, you're supporting the artist I get it and so I would like that one great handy this year Oh, we don't have that size but we have this other one sure that'll work that boom all right car cash, okay?
There's gonna be a question on the screen now. You just said my trigger phrase. Okay. Yep There's there's a question on the screen there you just fill that out and then we can Do you need her seat and so there's this moment where it's like oh you have to make a decision right now I'm here on the other side of the iPad you're there.
Can you just fill out whatever you need to fill out in order to finish the sale? It was an expensive piece of merch again I'm not saying anything it's been rector because he's a very social intelligent person and that just from watching how he can Conducts himself, but in that point of sale. There was an awkwardness that I didn't want there. We go and now you're getting to the gold I didn't want that mm-hmm.
So I gave a 40% tip. What would you have done Matt? What did you say your number was a joke it was 40 no I have 41 generally on shirts So what's your deal? What do you do?
Okay, here we go. Let's do it. Yes an honest question. Here's an honest answer I'm a very generous tipper unless you suck and if you don't suck or are excellent holy crap I just want to make your life better if you're a jerk and you make me acquiring the simple product that your company offers harder Then it would be under just natural terms.
You gotta stand. I am never a difficult customer I am let's make it fun. Let's make the thing happen. Let's joke around a little bit I just want people to feel good.
I don't want to make enemies I want it to be a nice experience sometimes I get somebody's having a bad day or things went poorly And if they're not up for anything and it's just here is your thing the transaction is complete cool Like still tip the way you ought to take care of somebody on the rare occasion that someone is just rude awful inept Not root or inept rude and inept those two combined. Yeah is my formula for it Yeah, you know what I feel gross about this and I don't want to give you money for that That is the rare occasion that I will tip low or just not but it's very very very rare It's generally speaking. I don't even calculate percentage I just try to pick like what would make their day better and then I try to do that So look I'm not some anti tip guy no tip and pippin Scotty Pippin like we all knew we're all the places that we work That if Pippin came in it was real cool because you got to see Scotty Pippin, but we also knew you weren't getting nothing really Yeah, yes, everybody knew because we all my friends We all worked in the service industry and this real high-end North Shore suburb of Chicago And we knew which bowls and bears tipped well and we knew which bowls and bears did not really yeah Yeah, it is yeah There's a fun quirk of being a kid at that time in that place and it wasn't like it wasn't like nothing matter I mean this is championship city at that point It was just one every year and so it's huge I mean they were nobility royalty so I don't want to be that guy like as a kid I had that formative experience like this is what it feels like to get stiffed or whatever by somebody's I don't want to do that There now I think that's my virtue signal So I feel about the tipping what tipping I've had tipping no I just mean tipping in general yes What's getting out of control is the whole structure. It's a dumb way to pass along the cost to the customer It almost as dumb as the RS being every year like hey you owe us money and we know how much it is a lot and You're gonna have to figure out what we know that number totally is we know and if it's wrong We'll know so tell us what you think it is and then we'll tell you if you guessed right I don't like the system.
It's it's not I don't know I don't have a proposal for a better one I don't get into taxes I don't like I don't like that dynamic that that creates between us and the government that isn't a good vibe between us I don't like the vibe I don't like the situation that we're being put in as humans It's almost like we're being pitted against each other here in some weird passive aggressive game over doing simple transactions I don't know how you change it, but I'd rather just pay more for the menu items and remove the expectation of tipping all together And that's just how it is It's just it's just all I kind of know it's taxed. It's all in your check It's all just right there and everybody just gets paid better and it works and then maybe my hamburger costs a few dollars more or whatever to cover That I don't like the way it's well We know what our employees should be getting paid and we know the number now you you figure it out And we'll let you know if that was right or not I don't like the dynamic that was bad just on its own in the primitive days of tipping when you just wrote it on a receipt And that was that it has become worse since an electronic intermediary is gonna quote ask you some questions I hate the script brother. I hate the okay here. I am.
I'm gonna get one donut and a small orange juice cool It's just gonna ask you a few questions. Would you like to donate $5 to St. Jude's? I children's hospital helped out Really big time once yeah, yeah, I better do that.
Are you signed up for the rewards? Okay? I don't know. I don't know how do I cancel the I don't want to do it.
Oh, just putting your phone number to cancel it No, no, you're not understanding it'll just it your last name is fine your zip code No, I don't I don't I just want the donut and a small orange juice since it has to be fast. Okay. Let's back up here Okay, fine St. Jude's yes.
I still want to do that. No cancel. I don't have a reward No, you can't have my phone number. No, you can't have my last name.
Okay, great. Oh tip Okay, do I want to do a 15 20 or 25% tip for handing me the donut from that rack? Well, I'm gonna level with you the tip I want to give in that situation is zero because that is not a typical offense typical activity you know what I mean Yeah, it just isn't and so I It's not just that the number keeps creeping up which I get because we're all getting shafted by awful financial policies and inflation I get it But I'm also frustrated that tipping is leaking into other activities that just simply aren't typical activities It just it isn't that's a small bottle of orange juice that got packaged in some other country and a donut someone else made and then You you took them off the shelf and handed it to me I don't want to pay another 20% on top of that that doesn't make sense to me You should get paid a reasonable wage you agree to whatever that is whatever your make sense number is between you and your employer I don't want to pick up the difference in that manner, but if it's just the price tag well, okay I might have a gripe with some invisible shop owner somewhere who I'm not gonna talk with I might have a gripe with some Corporation somewhere who I don't get to really negotiate with but they're gone. They're not present I don't feel human tension that phrase the fabric of society and community because they raised the prices on their things to pay their employees better Like we're fine I might grumble that the price is more but also yeah, I get it the world is what the world is but that iPad Phrase the social fabric of my community because now we're using a robot excuse for a passive aggressive thing It's gonna ask you some questions we both know what the question is the question is how much How much free money am I gonna give you for handing me that donut and it's not how I want to do it all that being said I Know you to be a gracious person.
I've seen that happen many many times And so what would be your proposal on a way to in a moment? I'm not saying I'm not saying that we shouldn't tip. I'm strongly saying we should we should I'd be open to another system where people get paid fairly Unwell without tipping as a mom. Have you ever shot that a absence of that?
Let's tip Have you ever shot that a public's grocery in the American South? There's a grocery store called public's yeah They have a very good deli. They have a very good bakery Okay, and they are known for their prices to be a little bit higher Like not much but a little bit higher and they're known to have extremely high quality food Also, they're known for every time you check out the person that backs the groceries looks at you and says ma'am Please take these to your car for you that same individual has a badge on their shirt that says no tips, please interesting mm-hmm. I like that mm-hmm and So a young man from a family that we know started working at Publix.
It's his first job. Okay chick-fil-a Do you do you know like the underground wage? Conversations that teenagers have like they're like hey, you know chick-fil-a is paying this hey hobby like the word on the street is hobby I'm just paying this thousand dollar signing bonus to go work at early sandwich and deadwood South Dakota right now Okay, so you do know these things I do so chick-fil-a was where a lot of the some of my daughters friends that the young girls And they started working they'll hey you should go work at Chick-fil-a my pleasure Yeah, yeah side note when I do eat at Chick-fil-a My favorite thing to do is when I go through the line I end the whole transaction by saying hey, you're awesome to the individual and thank you My pleasure Girls that went to work at Chick-fil-a they get like 12 bucks an hour this young man their brother He decided he wanted to go work at Publix and he is bringing in like 17 18 bucks an hour already And he's been there a year. He's a high school.
Yeah. Yeah, that's a lot of money But he's he's doing a really good job and he's looking at this and Publix is no they're an employee own company And they're known to take care of their employees and he's looking at this and he's like you know I might consider making this a career because they have options to move up and you can become management and you can you know You can go do inventory and the whole system. It's a lot of logistics So it's really interesting because as people talk you know word on the street right now is Hobby Lobby starts at 20 bucks an hour Locally and they know they're like hey, I'm gonna apply Hobby Lobby. Why oh 20 bucks an hour.
Are you serious? Yeah, it's what I hear and so there's an underground Whispering network of this is what the wages are these locations and all the teenagers are like There 20 bucks an hour, but then you smell like Hobby Lobby It's not like crafts is it really a subway has a smell pizza has a smell you take all the three of those jobs home with you Right there in the fabric. What is Hobby Lobby smell like what smells like crafts? It smells like those foam things that you stick fake plants in to make fake plant arrangements.
Yeah, those green things Yeah, they got a smell to them and I think Hobby Lobby smells like those things I think it smells like cheap plywood and Elmer's glue. Okay, I can see that too This episode of Notum Questions is brought to you by Hobby Lobby who reminds you This episode of Notum Questions is sponsored by Hello Fresh Hello Fresh is a meal kit delivery system where food can be delivered straight to your house You've got all the ingredients right there You got a little recipe card and you can make it and it gives you instructions on how to do so so you become like a chef in your own House, you know here's a question we're talking about tipping in this episode if you make hello fresh for your family should they tip you? Strong yes They should do this. That's right.
Somebody I saw a great tweet. I just earlier today Somebody was like it is no gift to people in your household if you make a special meal for them and leave them a disgusting kitchen Hold on. So think about it again. It's not the gift you think it is if you make a big messy meal for everybody But then you don't clean up so we kind of treat the thing as more like we all participate in all of it Yeah, like they cook with me.
We clean it up together. You do a Hello Fresh. It's like a whole event. It's a thing Yeah, that's awesome.
That's really good. So if you want to try out Hello Fresh go to Hello Fresh dot com slash Ndq 16 and use the code Ndq 16 for up to 16 free meals across seven boxes and three free gifts It's possible that people will be listening to this a little ways down the road and they're like you know what gas prices They're okay right now, but there's a decent chance that they're not gonna be okay And the opportunity have someone else pay for gas to bring food to you instead of going out to get it yourself is Better strategic idea for the household budget than ever right now plus on top of that people who do the homework on this stuff are telling me that it is as Much as 72% cheaper than dining out Kind of the travel and the cost of the restaurant or going Restore including tipping right right adds up really quick save some money You can do it at home plus you actually learn stuff about how your food works and you're more connected to the things that you're putting your Body which I can tell you what this is gonna be way better than that kind of chef boy our d raviolis you were gonna eat tonight I am now going to hello fresh calm what? Neopatric Harris he's on the front page of hello fresh doogie. How's her really you like sell it fresh all right?
Well, I mean I feel a little overshadowed I mean I don't want to say hurt, but I feel like we've had kind of a good thing going with hello fresh No, I'm quite a neopatric Harris. No Patrick Harris. I mean we sing jingles does he do that? Okay, let's see we got over here.
I want to see what the new meals are I'm past the shell shock of seeing Neil Patrick Harris And what that does to my heart and now I am over here on the menu menu for this current week that we are in right now We've changed the webpage the web page has changed since I since I last picked out our meals Yeah, this is interesting look at this firecracker meatballs steak style beef tinder loin Yeah, Italian chicken over limonie spaghetti. Yeah, they've totally changed a lot of stuff Are they yeah, this is really easy to use and it looks good and I can forgive them to timing us a little bit with Neil Patrick Harris I guess as long as the food continues it takes awesome and it does continue to take some Okay, so I'm reading some of the stuff that Hello Fresh is doing lately. You know how we used to say when you go on vacation Just pause it remember that yeah, totally different now You can just update the address and send it to your book vacation location like let's say you're gonna go I don't know out to the great smoking mountains and you're in a cabin You can put that address in there and they will send it to the cabin and you can cook it there in the cabin How cool is that weirdly? I had never thought of that very obvious application for Hello Fresh, but yep That would totally work especially because we do more of the Airbnb thing now You can get a place is pretty affordable that has a little kitchen you can make your own food Yeah, that's awesome once again if you want try Hello Fresh go to Hello Fresh calm slash Indicue 16 Use the code Indicue 16 for up to 16 free meals across seven boxes and three free gifts When you support the sponsor you are supporting us and yes We are aware that we're doing an episode about tipping here So we appreciate you going that extra mile to help out the podcast if you want to know more about Hello Fresh You can go down to the show notes and just read through those.
I'm just gonna ask you a couple of questions down there That's pretty good, but also for real Z's. Thank you so much. We are grateful Okay, so I feel the what's the word I feel that contentiousness or whatever it is you felt earlier in the conversation Thanks, yeah, and I know you all know like I'm reading your face You you kind of let it go a little bit because you could tell that we needed somebody to be angry at this and I'm unwilling to be That person on record to do that You know you want to make it fun and sometimes a controversial opinion that you have about something can do that but to be clear My gripe is not with tipping Yeah, I want people to be compensated well And I like that I'm given avenues to be generous in a way that doesn't change the social dynamic in a bad way It changes it a good way and for the record what I don't like about the mediator I've had things it wrecks it for the record. I've seen you tip abnormally high amounts in situations Yeah, so all that say what is the solution like how can we constructively provide?
Negative feedback to such a system. Let's say let's say you're a small business and you sell let's see what we gonna sell You're gonna sell well Let's just use the donut thing okay great You get donuts in the morning and then you're selling one donut at a time and the service that you're providing is getting the donut Out of the case handing it to the person in the nap quickly quickly. That's the value proposition Yeah, the whole exchange takes 30 seconds to a minute. It needs to okay, so Let's say you as a consumer you go up and you rightly assess that this is really not a typical service What do you do?
Let me tell you something that there's this schlatsky's I like to eat out all right? And if I got a few minutes and I want to sandwich I really like their hot sauce is great I have a bottle in the fridge, okay, so I go in there and there's a woman there that Absolutely nails this interaction. I want to picture this because we've been on the phone before when you've been at schlatsky's yeah I described the waitress so the restaurant is owned by a family from India Okay, and the lady that works there is the woman that usually takes an order She's African American okay, and she's the only African American that works with this family from India Okay, and she's very sweet where's a lot of makeup and She's just matter of fact. She's always at the counter when I walk up to order I don't have to hey, I'm right order none of that she's always there ready to go So they've got the cinnabon type things because it's a schlatsky's and cinnabon They sell the cinnamon rolls and stuff it and so it smells good when you walk up And I always get the number one deluxe original sandwich and she does the most amazing thing I will order and she'll say okay sugar go ahead and insert the card the chip and pan she'll go and insert your card I said yes man I saw insert the card and then she will reach her hand around the register and she will hit cancel on the tip Hmm, so it pulls up a thing and says you want to tip she hits cancel before I can even read it Hmm.
She's done it three times. Why's she doing that? I asked her she wants tips I said why are you not gonna let me tip you and she said sugar? I do this all day long I don't like it when that asked me that so I figured you don't like it when I ask you that so Let's just move along huh, and I was like you are genius, but I want to tip her now.
I do I want to give her all my money Yeah, if someone is making a sandwich for me, I want to tip them whether it's a chain She's not actually making the sandwich she is running the register and she's doing exceptionally well Okay, and so she is being very very efficient because there are people that when they take your order They get it figured out and they they're very exact communicators They anticipate the next question and the answer to it and they're just really good And the fact that she says boom she cancels the tip before I even get to look at it And I think the way the system it's a card system. It's not an iPad I think it's like one dollar two dollar other I think that's how it works, okay, and so but she cancel it and I get my sandwich And I keep going back to that shalatski over and over and over she's eliminated the awkwardness for me And I don't know the lady's name, but I really like her and you know I'm slowly developing a like a casual business relationship with her right and so I don't know that's an interesting way that she handles it from the Other side of the counter now my question is from the customer side of the counter if you feel like a typical service has not been provided What do you do? Do you absorb the awkwardness? I saw what you did at the burger joint where we got the drink?
What did I do? You said other you reached up and you typed other and I grinned in my heart because I knew I was about to bring You back to these microphones and talk to you about this so you you clicked other and then you realized I was sitting over your shoulder Nope, you're doing. I mean you've been accurate so far, but no go ahead Okay, I don't know if you took that into account or not But you started typing in and you said no what forget it and you typed you hit the 15% butt Yep, and there was not a human right what you did it Yep, and you had 15% and that $10.40 transaction for two drinks and a milkshake went up to whatever it was it went up 15 and something and And then we sat there and we had to go ask for a cup because there were no cups Yes, yeah, and so I mean I'll tell you why I did that tell me full disclosure Here's exactly what my thought process was you got three restaurants right in a row We wanted to go get food from one because I can't get it where I live and it's a special treat But you and I both wanted a different beverage treat to go with it. Yeah, we didn't like Pepsi one cook.
Okay. There it is Yeah, I like Coke and so we went and we got our food at one place and I thought well, you know It's kind of tacky to just go to another place and sit there and eat because it's their dining room But I just spend money by their stuff So we went to go sit at another place that had a dessert and had Coke and their lobby was closed because that's happening a lot right now Which factors into the tipping conversation? People who show up well, sure. Yeah, I'm tipping harder for people who show up right now.
Yeah, so we go there We tried the door. We can't go in that leaves us with a place that we didn't really want to go But they had coke so we went and no one was there there There's no like greeting or anything you just walk in they didn't have an open dining room and open dining room which I appreciate not a particularly clean one But you know, hey, whatever weird times I guess whatever so we go in we navigate the the payment thing and I went to hit one dollar for a chip That's why I typed in before I cleared it and hit the 15% which was more and the reason I did that is because I thought We're bringing food from somewhere else to sit here I want to go above and beyond so I can signal to the people who are here if they ever go back and look it up I thought those guys who ate somebody else's food here and drank our drinks here Yeah, I mean they were cool. They shot us a tip They know we got wiped down that table at some point and then the lady called us on it And I use the fact that you tip you did and I appreciated that she said you really gonna bring food from over there And he didn't hear and I said hey we tipped you we didn't tip them. Yep, and she laughed.
She thought that was fun They were cool to us. Yeah, but no I ran a calculation and tipping is kind of a calculation. It's not just the greater good It's a social human calculation that also involves a transaction. So for example my buddy Well our mutual friend Joel was in town There's this really cool place where I like to go eat during the summer in the black Hills You ride a tramway up to the top of this mountain that looks straight across a Mount Rushmore and you can sit up there Yeah, they got a whole grill and everything and it's just beautiful It's like a small version of rock city in Chattanooga except you look right at the faces of Mount Rushmore And the only way to get up is a tram and the only way down is an alpine slide.
I just love it. It's cool so we go up there and I can tell that the owner and the owners kid are up there working and They got a bunch of stuff wrong. So we ordered and they left basically the last number So a full decimal off of the credit card charge so they under charge that's by I mean, it's not cheap food out there They are just by a lot and I flipped around I turned back around. I'm like, oh, hey, we need to run the card again I'm like well, we really liked only run at once.
It's like but you under charge me by like 40 bucks Oh, so okay. Thank you. Thank you. And they they ran it again So I did not write a tip on the first one because I yeah saw it I signed it I held it up to them and then I put a substantial tip on the second one and as I did so I guess I'm hovering over the tip thing I'm like we're gonna sit here for a few minutes is alright if we get a refill on beverages and the one person says yeah Sure, and maybe that factored into my decision to write a bigger tip or not But we took care of it.
I come back up. It's time to get a refill. Yeah, it's a 79 cents Like man, I kind of pulled him away from the customers I'm like you guys under charge me by 40 bucks And I got it and I had your repay And then I wrote you X number of tip and asked if we could do a refill like can we just we fill it once and he's like It's like he snapped out of a trance. It's like he went from whatever he was doing to a human and he's like oh, yeah Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm sorry.
I just gave me like three ounces of soda. It's a tiny cup. It didn't matter Yeah, and I felt like okay all business is a negotiation to some extent and maybe the tip is a little bit of the part of the Negotiation I'm okay with that I think that's a good function for tipping there are some places I go where I feel like the tip is a bribe not to do something to my Food I have felt that mm-hmm Yeah, I want this clean So the price is $11 and then the hidden price to get it as intended is another five cool here sex Let's make it super as intended to please. There's a function to it I get it my biggest thing is I just don't like the iPad and I've thought about how to get around it from a customer side I don't know be strategic.
There's not a one-size-fits-all solution for me read the room What's the situation? What's the dynamic? What needs to happen here? What is the person I'm interacting with need in their life?
That's it that so what you just said is key nuance, right? Read the room, huh? Read the person behind the counter is this person clearly doing this because I don't like why are they working at this location? That matters for me.
I what is this person doing? Is this extra pocket changes? This is it? I don't know I'm not rich I can't give everyone ten dollars.
Yeah, like every I can't give everyone on earth ten dollars It'd be cool. I'd love to give everybody ten dollars, but there have been times in my adult life when I didn't have ten dollars Not like to give like it all like I've experienced that in my adult life abject Verokeness from my investments didn't work out. I bought a house and didn't work out I had to write a check to get out of it. I didn't have any money anymore when I was a young man It was terrifying So I simultaneously have to take into account that I have limited resources But I also know what it feels like to be totally up a creek and you're trying to battle back out of it And right now what I can do is this job and that $5 tip instead of a $2 tip actually makes my life better So I got my antenna out for that because I care about that and I'm an empathetic to it That said the iPad puts us in a bad spot It eliminates that point of connection or it strains that point of connection between me and the other person So what I would love to see is something more like this instead of the very passive borderline passive aggressive It's going to ask you a few questions.
That's just disingenuous and I know employees didn't come up with that script bosses did Hey bosses if you're listening, I hate that script I think a better script is just go through the front door. Here's gonna happen If the thing is gonna ask you to donate to a children's hospital say we ask you to consider a donation to St Jude's children's hospital It helps kids who are facing death and need expert treatment and we understand the five bucks goes a long way to give it all to them It's done. That's great right through the front door on the tip side So you're gonna swipe it and then immediately options for tipping is going to come up You can do that if you'd like to or just glad you're a customer either way Like just something like that just something that says you're welcome to of course It's helpful. I mean employee of course.
I want a tip that makes my life work But just speak to what it is but the the machine creates this So if I understand the the thing that bugs you the most is when they say it's gonna ask you some questions I hate that phrase. Okay. Yes. Yeah, I think what it is from the other side of the counter It's it's like hey, this is awkward for me.
Yeah, I didn't ask that to be on the machine Yes, and so it's not my fault. It's that machine's fault. I think that's what's happening. Yes, but well But I know that script is corporate is it yes?
I know this really in most cases that script is corporate I have asked in ways that involve people I know and not putting people on the spot Hmm, so something like let me try another run at this a thing You could say you'll be shown an option to tip if that's something you want to do or we accept tips If that's something that you want to do it'll give you an option right there Like just something like I am wondering if I'm gonna have the option to or when and when I go to other countries If I don't tell them in advance I'd like to add a tip please add $15 and they swipe the card I can't add it if I don't have local currency You can't write it on after the fact with the way credit card transactions work in a lot of other countries So I'm wondering it is a service to me to address the question of when the tip part of the exchange happens that could be useful I want to play a game with you. I'm ready So I've got a list of services and things that are happening around you. Okay, let's say you're you're going to a different city and You're going to attend a wedding. Okay, you're gonna do several things along the way to this wedding Okay, and I just want to just kind of explain the relationship of all the people you touch and I'm making this up as I go Love it.
Okay, so you get to the airport and you get ready to To check in to the airport and there's an airport curbside check in the person there that get your bags and they take the bags over to the The carousel thing they check you in and all that so you tip those people Because I there's ambiguity about tipping I don't do it and I go inside to the line. Okay, I will avoid I will choose a less convenient option at times if there's ambiguity about tipping especially when I don't carry cash They back in the days my head cash like I don't here's a couple bucks You can tell me if you're allowed to take it now that I don't have it I just want to avoid making that person feel like they got stiffed if you are supposed to go somewhere else you get out of the car and You say goodbye to your uber driver, mm-hmm, and a little thing pops up on the on the phone. Yep as you're going in Yep to tip do you do it not automatically? Yeah, what's your decision tree there?
It depends on the service entirely like uber is very service-dependent We got a ride with a guy who just regaled us with awful things on a recent trip He's just said awful awful stuff about really anyone and everyone and I got done a slot now You got paid I don't want to if you you made that miserable with your mouth What about what about the person that picks you up looks at you as he picks you up in the uber is like you Matt? Yep, you John. Yep cool. Hop in we're going to 17 East Lansing Street, right?
Yep. Okay. Cool. I'll get your back Sir, put some bag in starts driving.
It's a 30 minute drive doesn't say a word to you absolutely get to that person every time you That person a lot right. That's yeah, it's great. If that person does say the less that person says the more than more you tip, right? Yeah, maybe I'm in the mood to chat and it seems like uber drivers understand that like hey sometimes you're gonna have a Conversation other times this person needs a brain space This might be the only window they get before they arrive at the thing where now it's a crush for two straight days Yeah, if you drive safely and are within the normal boundaries of respectful to other people on the road Whether we chat or don't chat we're good either way I've had a few uber drivers who just talked themselves out of a tip by saying just truly terrible things So you you go in you're going through the the concourse or whatever and you've got to change from one concourse to the other and you Those little tram things goes from one concourse the other you hop in the bus and you go from here to there Do you tip the driver if there is an obvious container for tips and I have cash Yes, okay, if not no di yet Denver my home airport I think it has signage that says no tipping allowed got it or something like that and the body language and interaction with the driver They're communicating with everything they do.
This is not a typical service I'm well paid and employed by this company and I do the thing I'm supposed to do all right So there's kind of a read the room on that one so you go to the you're tired and you want a hot chocolate because you're not a coffee guy And so you go to start or try it You go to Starbucks and you get there and you get your little hot chocolate with foam and little cherry on top or whatever and The barista there, you know, they do the iPad thing they flip it around this would you like to tip right there on the iPad? What do you do? Okay, I tell you what if somebody hits me with the it's gonna ask you a few questions I'm still gonna tip but you're gonna hit other I will go one button higher if we say nothing or we navigate it socially more Definitely, okay, just don't and here's the issue Whatever you incentivize people will do I don't want to incentivize that question. I hate that It's gonna ask you a few questions thing.
I genuinely don't like it other people might be like I love it cool incentivize it I don't and this is coming from someone who's depended on the generosity of others so many times in my life People support this podcast like I want to be a part of the give and take and the whole circle of generosity together I'm in it's that that threatens the circle of generosity that dehumanize I just figured it out what just figured it out the word the word that Makes it painful guilt. They're gonna guilt you into tipping is that it? No, I'm sorry to rain on your discovery parade But no that it's the dehumanizing of the exchange That's it I don't want to tip you because it is a thing that occurs and robots make it happen I want to tip you because you're Kelly right your Kelly you have the red hair he's got engaged I asked you about that. You're clearly excited your friends with these other people you're joking around with your coworkers like I don't know you're human and you're in a moment in life and I'm overlapping in a way where I just came to get a coffee But also you know what here's five bucks Which represents like a 90% tip on this one little item that I got and it gives me away a very humanly between me and Kelly Who's at the front end of adulthood and excited about life for me to be like hey blessings on you go get them kid I hope it goes great for like that's what I wanted to communicate I don't want to have that interaction with an iPad Let me tell you the largest percentage wise tip I can remember giving in recent memory Okay went to a chipotle all right and my buddy's like a man Let's go to the chatel the burrito guy might be working.
I was like what he's like I don't know how to explain it, but she's a really cool dude. I was like, okay Let's go to burrito. I don't know whatever we walk in the door young guy behind the counter points at my buddy's like hey Hey, it's burrito day. It is burrito day and he goes right in my buddy's like yeah, right burrito day He goes we're gonna do it are we doing it and I thought he walks up the county goes.
Yeah, we're doing it Yeah, we're doing burritos today Like legit this guy probably has been working there like three weeks. Yeah because he's being trained by the lady this there She's training him. He's young. He's like hey, what we doing on the burrito, huh?
What do you want? He's having the time of his life. It is the best burrito experience. Yeah He doesn't even care about tips.
He doesn't care about anything. He's gonna make you the most fantastic burrito you've ever had in your entire life He means it dude. I got to the end He's like and he's having trouble ringing me up like you know He's clearly very excited about making me the food but like the register like running it just not there yet You know, he's like what do we have now like did you get out? Did you keep guacamole?
I don't remember and we just struggle through all that and dude I was like you brightened my day so much the iPad thing come up. He's like whatever man run your car and let's do it I tipped the fire out of that guy man. I was like you have made my day so good. Yes.
So anyway, that's good All right, but you're still at the airport. Oh, yeah This is a fun exercise to keep going use head is drink and yeah for some reason you're at the Charlotte Airport Which is the airport that I know that which is where I'm going tomorrow morning Charlotte I'm here. You're gonna experience this. Okay.
Oh, you're gonna go to the bathroom and there's gonna be a bathroom attendant They got a bathroom attendant. Charlotte. They do and so the bathroom attendant keeps the bathroom clean I do like that has mince there. Yeah, and they've got even got mouthwash and some of them like it some of the bathroom attendants They'll be like hey, I got mouthwash here if you want it There's a little cup do your thing, you know, and then on the way out, you know They like hey, thanks.
Have a good day They let you know and then somebody goes to the bathroom. They're running out of the clinic real quick And so this particular bathroom attendant that is in the bathroom that you're at on this fictitious journey It's a good one. Okay, when you come in like afternoon sir How you doing? Look she and I says hello and then you don't see anything why you're there?
But when you go in it smells good. Oh, yeah, everything's clean. Yeah pepper mince. Yeah wash your hands What do you do?
I should walk past him same scenario is the curve as soon as I walk in and see that I'm in a bathroom with a bathroom attendant I think if I have any cash in an appropriate denomination on me if I do not the next order of operation is look to see if there's Anywhere to just tap a card or something if not the next order of operation is to skip going to the bathroom Walk over look in the mirror tidy my shirt a little bit and walk out Don't touch anything don't do anything make it look like I just needed a mirror for a second and go find like a family bathroom or Like a single handicap bathroom or something like that where you go in and there is no bathroom attendant because this is a paid service And I can't pay for it because I don't have the right currency to get it done So I will I will actively avoid that situation if I don't have the right kind of cash to pay I don't so I think I would if I have to pee I have to pee so I would go in and The first thing I would do in this particular situation is I would look at the urinals and I would say there's five urinals on the wall And three of them are occupied and so I would pretend that everyone that's out of your own is an electron And I'm also an electron we repel each other Mm-hmm And so I would try to find the the open urinal that's farthest away from the buffer urinals Yes, yes, and then that's the urinal I would and then I would walk right now next to you P. M. I put and make eye content. Hey, where you from?
Baseball I love baseball I have a reason in my pocket do you like raising? so That situation is awkward and you know if I have a dollar or coinage it goes in the tip jar Yeah, okay, um if I don't I still use the service and it's just like I didn't have it But this bathroom is here. I mean it's not like I have other options This is where I have to empty my bladder This is what I'm gonna do and I'm gonna feel a little awkward as I walk out But that's that's what's gonna happen to me. I like to pin with silver see if I think in advance I'll get like little half-houses or something like that.
I did this for graduation gifts I do this for Christmas and Easter gifts for all the kids literal good Yeah, I get I get a Christmas over and I give it all to kids and then I give them a little talk like everybody had to sit through here on NDQ about value This this actually is worth something young people like I do that And then I will always kind of tie it in with like the meaning of Christmas or the meaning of Easter whatever it is And I'm real scabby about it So I always make sure to buy those Christmas or Easter coins right after Christmas or Easter So I'll have them next year So I got this year's Easter coins, but then for graduation now get I found these super little gold coins Which sounds like it'd be worth a ton of their very very very small amount of gold maybe 50 to 100 bucks value for this little tiny commemorative gold coin But I'll give it the same kind of thing like this is a long-term investment in you you can do whatever you want with it Gift but this is the kind of thing that is meant to be like some of the first value you have out of school I give the talk about this coin can be your new zero right now This coin is worth $71.30 and 30 cents. It's your new zero as long as you have this coin in a drawer You always have $71.30 or whatever it's worth on that day Just make that your new zero and every paycheck that goes by make your new zero higher. I do the new zero talk That's fun Yeah, and then sometimes when I'm traveling or I'm going to a restaurant where I kind of know how much I'm gonna spend I'll think to just grab a half ounce or an ounce silver kind of depending on where the value of silver is at a given time And I'll bring it and so that they don't feel cheated or something like they got some stupid Christian tracked about how to go to heaven But it looks like $50. I hate that but it's just something that is the worst crappy fundamentalist bull crap That's the worst dude godly man.
Yeah, I don't want to feel like that So I'll explain like hey, I left you a couple of silvers I don't know if you do that like if you want to turn that into cash Like they'll give you a 50 bucks for it I get any of the stores in town, but if you're kind of saving up Or like it's easy and easy way to save value and so I just wanted you to have it And I try to make it like way more than what a normal tip would be and I got a reason I have a strategy for this I want that individual who might be in a tough spot to start thinking about finding a way to set aside something Anything to start raising that zero level. Maybe that little way of doing it Just makes it more convenient to set aside a little bit of how you want to draw and just have it sitting around Maybe that's presumptuous of me. I try to over tip if I do it that way But I got a strategy I want to help even if it's misguided and I'm not doing it well And so if I'm thinking I'm going on certain trips I'll grab a pocket full of tip coins for things just like that And I would like to think that I would have the right kind of silver denomination to drop in a cup for somebody's taking care of a bathroom Which is a valuable service. That's awesome.
I like that So what are these coins called that you would do this with? I don't know anything like it's little one ounce silver round That's significant. Well, it depends on the time I mean in the last year that's been 19 bucks and 30 bucks. Oh wow everywhere in between It's fluctuated a lot with things going on in the world.
All right. All right. We gotta keep going on your trip here So okay, all right. Yeah, so you understand my thinking there Yeah, I don't I care about the relationship Even if I never see the person again and how they feel and if I can't tip I might kind of just want to avoid it This episode of notum questions is brought to you by Raycon Raycon makes earbuds that we both love I love the way they sound and I also love that they don't cost me a bajillion dollars to Buy and it doesn't cost me a bajillion dollars therefore to replace if you do manage to lose one or your kids pill for it because they really Like them, too.
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You don't know if it's your connection You don't know if it's your phone being transferred to Bluetooth Yeah, and then I've had calls drop via Bluetooth It's just very difficult to get the Bluetooth pairing thing right in my experience except with Raycons Raycons once you pair them once You can even label you know in your little Bluetooth settings things. I say hey Raycons white your buds every day blue Raycon's I'll say something like that and I'll get into the blues I think is what mine says dent it blue Raycon's really because I can't kill so as soon as you crack open the little pill Which doubles as the charging holder there as soon as you crack it open boom pairs instantly and it's just it just works Yep, and so I don't know what they did but for some reason Raycon figured out how to get Bluetooth pairing to work and work well I think the only other technology that I've seen rival the Bluetooth efficiency of the Raycons was my wife's old car Which could be a hundred miles from my house and I'm on a call and she starts it in a parking lot and immediately It picks it up and now she's hearing me cracking jokes weird things I don't know if I would stab a dolphin What I was quoting a movie about it's a joke. I'm sorry. Yeah, that's awesome No, it is though You pop it open it works You push the button the number of times it says to push it to achieve the functions that you want and it does that every single time For me just the reliability and the predictability is what makes a part of the everyday carry So if you want to pair of Raycons you can get them by going to buy Raycon calm slash in DQ for 15% off your order So if you want to try out the Raycons you can go to buy Raycon calm slash in DQ for 15% off your order again Thank you so much for supporting the sponsor that helps make the podcast go So you went to the city that the what city do you want this fictitious wedding to be in?
It's in Winnipeg. So Winnipeg so we we're in Winnipeg now great. I didn't tip the customs guy No didn't tip the customs guy not at all I tipped him several hundred dollars that were barely visible out the side of an envelope So so you show up at the hotel great Bellhop get your bags out of the uber actually takes into your room Actually takes into your room while you're checking in all that kind of stuff there So you get up to the the room and the ball hop serve with your bags He walks in giving to you what do you do? Okay?
That's happened to me like twice in my whole life I haven't thought about this one very much well I mean hey, this is having real time. You know Yeah, if I have the denomination to tip him I give it to him because that is a typical service Uh-huh if I don't I say I'm not carrying any cash is there a way to put a tip for you on my on my bill I can I call down and do that now? I don't worry about a man. That's what they do.
They way me off Don't worry about a man. It's only in which case I would say yeah I appreciate that but is it possible is there a way for you to get that? I'd like for you to get something for helping me out if they say no it just it doesn't work That's okay Yeah, then I take them at their word and that's that and if I can come up with some cash in the next day or two And I see them again I'll try to get that guy back But I'm not used to staying in a place that would have a bellhop so I don't anticipate it You get a check in you take your power nap that you take when you get to the hotel Yeah, you shower because you flew and it's weird and you're tired But you know start to get hungry before you get a bed Yeah, so you decided to take your rental car yes out to get something eat oh by the way when you get your rental car Somebody brought it around to you don't tip that personal okay So you go to sonic okay sonic's good and you go and you get some cheese and maple syrup moose dipper You get a maple syrup moose dipper and you get some ocean water just our cherry limeade just like they love their Canada, you know those maple syrup moose dippers And the person brings your food out to your car there sonic yeah It's fast food restaurant, but they brought it to your car and they say okay your bill is 1074 What do you do? I don't think I usually tip it sonic see I do it's right see I do see I never but I was Go through the drive-through.
I haven't done this scenario in oh you don't do the pull in thing No, so when I pull in a drive-through right I do not tip in the drive-through But when I pull into the thing and they bring the food to my car yeah, so if they bring it to me yeah Yeah, like pizza for example I recently got carryout pizza and I went in to get the pizza okay, so I did not tip right you did you did the getting I went Did the getting I drove my car to the right I gave like a buck or something But they didn't have to do anything right but I was like yeah I'll give you a buck and so sometimes I'll do this I'll hit other and I'll enter a conciliatory dollar like yeah Hey, I came and got it You know this is takeout Chinese food, but I'm gonna give you a dollar because I like you and I want your business to thrive Yeah, there you go. Yeah, okay cool. So get back home after not tipping your sonic person You wake up and you see there on the hotel There's an option to go work out and there's like a little aerobics class and you're really big into aqua aerobics That's kind of your thing and so you go down and it's like a peloton type situation Okay, only the person is right there with you in real life So it's you and Wanda and Mildred sure and you're gonna do aqua aerobics And then you got you know Becky there and she is your teacher Okay And for an hour you guys do very strenuous aqua aerobics and she's like telling you what to do And you're doing it and it's just throwing in the hotel and you get done She's like hey, well, thanks for staying with us here at the the great moose lodge and hope you enjoy your time here That's a fantastic Canadian chain by the great moose Great moose, one of my favorites, and then you leave do you tip do you tip the aqua aerobics? I never thought about that scenario in my entire life ever did I pay for the aqua aerobics?
No, no You just walk in they're just giving that away for saying at the great moose. Absolutely. Yeah, you gotta work off the great moose Inters you know, yeah, absolutely Maple syrup dippers We'll land the plane here soon. No, this is a good exercise.
I'm joining it. I I don't know 50 50 like if I got something that I can reach my pocket like oh I got a 10 here You go. I don't know what this is in Canadian, but thank you Becky. Yeah spontaneous.
I don't got a rule for that one I don't know last situation, okay, and then I'll let you off the hook So you go to the the big wedding. It's awesome off the chain. There's a bartender Obviously you kick him a little dollar and a half or yeah, of course round up on the drink bartenders automatic Yeah, because they provide more than fetching beverages. They interact with you like a human that you interact with them like a human Yeah, so that's an obvious one, but there's a DJ dude this DJ off the chain Disney play my favorite song He plays all of your favorite songs.
Yeah, careless whisper. Yeah, he plays just when I thought I was never gonna dance again Yeah, I know he plays all of your favorite songs. Yeah, and people aren't really dancing They're just not really into it. Yeah, we'll tip jar up there There's probably like some kind of royal mounted police conference at the great moose hotel that day before you leave Do you go up there something tip jar?
Yeah, I think so if the DJ's fun. I always did DJs Yeah, I think that would occur to me But also it sometimes just doesn't occur to you So in all of these scenarios if I feel any kind of connection at all and they're making it meaningful for other people and demonstrating up at the end Trying so that's what people's lives to be better and I want to help so somebody touches my life like sure That's a simplest way to give something back. That's great. So that's it all comes down to that right?
So Becky swims over to me and flips around an iPad and is like, okay, just keep bouncing there keep bouncing This is just gonna ask you a couple of questions I feel gross. Yeah, and she might get more tips overall doing that She really might because of the social pressure But I don't like what it does to our relationship or the fabric of society So it's not so much about the ask for the tip It's more about the dehumanization of the experience and so burrito dude burrito dude cared about me And he wanted my burrito to be the best burrito I've had all month. Yeah, or if burrito dude was just a heartbroken and having a tough day That's an opposite experience, but heck yeah, I mean what do you need man? Yeah, absolutely Absolutely, we had a waitress one day and you know how at a restaurant when you're sitting down, you know They bring you the bill and there's a little sometimes the waiter or waitress may be flustered But when they bring you the check there's always that little hey, hope you enjoyed it.
Y'all come back and see us There's that yeah in Alabama. You'll get a sweetheart. Hey sweetheart. Thank you for coming You know you'll get that thrown in yeah when that happens.
I'm not thinking about the experience at that moment You know the person earned the tip of at the beginning when they're like hey, how are you doing? You know good afternoon. Yeah for me. That's the I usually decided that one time.
I was just so interesting But again, let's talk about the parameters you and I are both deciding between be generous or super generous correct or like Could I change this person's life today? Could a hundred dollars that I have set aside for something else change this person's life? Whoa, that would be huge that'd be like ridiculous And that's and that's like the far end of what possibly might happen That's not even like a tip at that point that would be like a comeback and like hey, I heard what happened and what's going on I hope this helps with your thing. Yeah, and I'm not doing that most obviously That's a lot of money but but I can even imagine a scenario where it's like okay This is beyond tip relationship And this is into it gets humans we minister to each other's needs and sometimes a person who's needs need to be ministered to might be Somebody you run into who is making a sandwich for you other times.
It might be somebody on the street I don't know and people have picked me up like that I hope that I picked other people up like that Generosity makes the world go around for crying out loud dude. This show is funded by patreon. Do you know what we give people who support us on patreon? Thanks, that's what we get a good conversation.
So that's the that they can have for free Yeah, they don't have to support it right, you know and so look I completely get it There's been something about the way it's been carried off lately that steals the joy from me of what the generous relationship between all This that makes it go around could be there's an opportunity for us being kind to each other and picking each other up to be something that makes Everything better, but there's also a way to bastardize and cheapen that that takes away all of that good That is just sitting right there that can break through barriers of disagreement and cultural differences like everybody needs to have their needs met That's something we all have in common I also think it's okay if there's clearly not a typical service and the iPad is in front of you as a Function of the software package we chose to run our business. I think it's okay to the client I think it's okay, and I absolve you of any guilt of that that's kind of you Do the same for me. Oh, I even know gestures. I went to seminary Yeah, so bottom line is the iPad thing makes it weird keep loving people and try to do the next