Mean Time Between Failures? MAY THY BUSINESS FLOURISH!

It seems that too much of what we have built, or allowed to be installed, has a very short MTBF, or “Mean Time Between Failures”, going anecdotally by what I experience on an almost daily basis. You want data? Help me, I don’t have time for these kinds of things. You suss out the data and send me the link for the source documents. I’ll be happy to be proven wrong.

I am in a food court with a rather “musical” name. Guess where.

GPS systems that fail to locate properly. Automatic barriers at parking lots that can’t remember when you entered the lot. Car washing machines that fail just when you want to use them. F1 wannabes who think the government has made the roads and expressways for them to practice on. Perps who tailgate all the time, flash their high beams at you as though you’re trespassing on their property. ATMs which refuse to dispense ten-dollar bills. Bus drivers who don’t realize that you’re actually giving way to them. Pedestrians who think zebra crossings are for zebras. Motorists who think likewise about those same zebra crossings. On and on it goes.

Maybe it’s time we stopped cursing in frustration at those things. So, instead of thinking about MTBF as “Mean Time Between Failures”, let’s think of MTBF as “May Thy Business Flourish”. And the latter MTBF occurring on a daily basis. You can start by keeping your car and your abode clean. What say ye?

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