Once upon a time, when I lived in Manhattan, I would escape to the Hamptons during summer weekends – along with millions of other New Yorkers.
The traffic was usually insane. There were times when a 3 and 1/2 hour car ride took over 7 hours – especially if you attempted to drive Montauk Highway during peak hours.
While the hours were often being killed with laughter and good tunes, there was always an implied competition – among every car headed east – to arrive within the best time.
Even at the bars, typical Friday night pick up lines conversation starters were, “how long did it take you to get out here?”
Because making good time was a crucial part of the weekend’s festivities, in between jokes and switching CDs during the trip, we often found ourselves searching for ways to make better time.
There was even a guidebook that was published which claimed to reveal the best shortcuts for avoiding the motorized crawl on Montauk Highway.
But of course, none of these were real shortcuts, for everyone knows that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. So I adamantly refused to call them shortcuts. Instead, I would refer to them more appropriately as “traffic avoiders“.
Anyone who knows me can tell you how annoyed I used to get when someone would improperly label a “traffic avoider“, a “shortcut“.
While I am all for avoiding congestion, I simply do not believe in taking shortcuts – ever.
Instead, I believe in the journey.
In business, as opposed to jumping on crowded trends, I prefer to set new ones.
And in life, just like my old Hamptons’ excursions, I take the scenic route to avoid driving with the breaks on.
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Rantings of a Stoic 