Disliking the custom of tipping

The kind of purchase or employment that I prefer to undertake involves the parties being clear about and agreeing upon the nature of the good or service and its cost in advance of anything being done or provided. If it is performed well or not then any further reward will be something like repeat custom, recommendations to others, etc., or the contrary. I find the custom of expected tipping needlessly confusing and error-prone. I do not want to undertip but I hardly have the wherewithal to systematically err in the other direction, especially when there are several dollars involved. Exceptions in minimum wage laws are a particular annoyance to me because I would much rather that people agree to work based on the face value rather than vague hopes: I want them to be adequately paid in the first place and for me to be charged accordingly. Therefore I do not want to routinely tip because I thus implicitly support an economy in which it is routine.

I am caused considerable worry and confusion by the diversity in expectations of tips which appear to vary by time, place and nature of service, and of course the degree to which the administrators signing off on one's expense report concur with one's guesses as to what level of tip was reasonable for each service. This uncertainty makes me feel as though the system is far more trouble than it is worth and, especially given the substantial suggested tips in some contexts, can seem like a trick to manipulate more money out of me than I had originally planned to pay. For all I know I am even supposed to tip my milkman: he left us a Christmas card with the milk and I reciprocated but, especially in view of the recent Christmas Miracle of the Bottle Lid of the Frozen Milk, maybe the correct but unstated response is to leave him cash in the card and wonder if it gets declared as income, not that I haven't already paid for the milk deliveries.

Fortunately I sometimes find it easy to undertip with a clear conscience: a few months ago I had mentioned taxi drivers who grumble to me as a passenger about when I wanted to go where and such inspire me to confidently differ with the payment machine's suggestion that 25% might be a reasonable tip. More generally I highly value the company of a worldly local who can tell me how much to tip.

Maintaining attention while reading lists

I have become aware of some mental effort involved in giving meaning to words. I had read about semantic satiation in which repeating words can cause them to lose meaning but not really thought about the work I sometimes put into properly understanding the words I read.

These days the usual example is when I glance through television and radio schedules to see what might be worth watching or hearing. There are so many shows that I can easily lapse into a state in which I mechanically pass my eyes over each name but fail to employ sufficient cognition to recognize that the show may be worth my attention. Not only must I comprehend each show's name but I must think on it enough to understand what it plausibly offers.

The above reminds me of restaurant menus. It used to take me sustained concentration to choose a meal because my method is to read about each option and imagine myself to be eating it, vividly enough to determine how pleasurable that experience would be. I don't know how typical that method is. When I enjoyed rather more disposable income then I ate out enough over many years that now when presented with a menu offering reasonably familiar fare, such as at a typical American family restaurant, I can decide rapidly: I have become quite used to judging what the descriptions of the dishes mean to me. It helps that I do not quickly tire of foods so repeated visits do not force new choices.