The Washington DC Metro (the DC subway system) just approved a $1 million plan to employ “mystery riders” to ride the subway trains.  Their job description:

The mystery riders would travel on nearly all routes, evaluate the service from a customer’s perspective and provide feedback to Metro.

Hmm.  Hiring someone to serve as a proxy for a customer is a great idea.  That is, unless you actually have customers who fill the role perfectly.

Metro already hears from many customers about what does not work. The agency receives between 3,000 and 4,000 complaints a month, according to agency reports. The most common complaints are late buses, rude and discourteous behavior, and a lack of reliability for MetroAccess, the paratransit service. More than 1.2 million trips are taken systemwide on an average weekday.

I am so not looking forward to riding the Metro yet again this summer.  It’s awesome to see the system make yet another boneheaded move.

My Story:

Three years ago, I noticed my left middle fingernail began turning white instead of its normal healthy pink. I did not know what was going on, but after a few weeks, the entire nail became white and flaky. At first I did not think much of it, but then I started getting regular questions along the lines of “what the heck is wrong with your nail, you freak?” Subsequently, I decided to go to the doctor.

After a short appointment, the doctor told me I had “onychomycosis,” which means nail fungus in regular-person language. He said that I needed to take a medication called Lamisil for two months. That sounded easy enough. But there was a catch: I needed to get a blood test to make sure that my liver could handle the medication.

At that point, since I like my liver, I asked the doctor if I had any other options. I told him I understood the medication was probably more convenient than the other options, but that I would much rather see if I could try a solution that didn’t involve damaging my liver. He told me this was my only option, and that if I did not take the Lamisil, my nail would grow thick and I would get frequent fingernail infections and live with constant fingernail pain. He then wrote me a prescription for Lamisil, using a pen with the Lamisil logo, and I walked out of his office dreading what might happen to my finger if I did not take the drug.

My car is currently on its deathbed.  My 1990 Toyota Camry has been so good to me for so long.  However, I took it in to a repair shop a few weeks ago because I thought the rear cylinders were leaking.  I wasn’t too worried because rear cylinder repairs are only a couple hundred bucks.

Turns out I was right… sort of.   Not only were the rear cylinders leaking (slightly), but both front CV joints on my car are cracked, I have a bunch of “valve issues” and I’ve got oil leaking on my timing belt.  Total projected repair cost: $1800.  My car’s blue book value: sub $500.  So I’ve come to the conclusion, that sometime in the near future, I need to find another car.

Just because something is considered conventional wisdom does not mean it is correct.  Blindly following conventional wisdom can lead to ugly consequences.  It is important to take the time to question conventional wisdom often.

Conventional wisdom exists everywhere.  Conventional wisdom says that children should finish everything on their plate so they can grow up big and strong.  My girlfriend, who is a couple years from becoming a registered dietitian, explained to me recently that forcing a child to finish the food on their plate is a really bad idea if they are not hungry.  The reason is that the brain and stomach train over time to recognize when the stomach is “full” to provide self-regulation to prevent overeating.  However, when someone constantly overeats, the brain loses the ability to self-regulate, because it interprets “full” as more and more with each session of overeating.

Conventional wisdom also says to avoid eating cholesterol, because it increases your body’s cholesterol levels.  However, according to all dietitians and the Harvard School of Public Health:

This morning I read an interesting article in the Washington Post entitled “When the Rules Run Up Against Faith.”  Essentially, the article was about an excellent female high school cross country and track runner, who was a practicing Muslim and was thus forbidden from showing skin except for her hands and face.  Thus, at track meets, she was wearing a unitard that covered her arms and legs, and was equipped with hood to cover everything but her face, which she wore under her team’s uniform.

Everything was fine for the past three years, in which she raced in that uniform at many track meets.  However, at a recent meet, and one that was very important to her, a meet director told her that her uniform was unacceptable and she was disqualified.   Essentially, his argument was that technically, her uniform violated the rules (his argument is wishy-washy to begin with), so she has to be disqualified.

Assuming that the meet director was entirely correct when he said that her uniform violated the rules, he is still wrong in disqualifying her, because he is ignoring the entire purpose behind the rules.  As far as I can see, there are three purposes behind the rules: (1) to prevent an unfair advantage; (2) to make team uniforms the same to differentiate one team from another; and (3) to prevent athletes from wearing something obscene.