My friend Carl suffers from Phileas Foggism

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argins. He’ll be there on time, he says, which means he’ll be late.We have this other meeting, this time with customers, at 9:00. I tell him: “Shall we meet just before it, so we can set up the camera and all?” He answers: “I’ll be there at 9:00”. Typical Carl. I love him dearly but he drives me crazy.“But, Mr. Fogg, eighty days are only the estimate of the least possible time in which the journey can be made.”“A well-used minimum suffices for everything.”¹The traffic schedule app is his best friend. He plans his travels minutely. He knows exactly how much time it takes him to walk to the subway station and won't leave home a second before the estimat

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ed time, so he won't have to wait a second for the train to arrive. “And If it comes earlier?” I ask. “Well, then it shouldn’t,” he answers, because he is always right.We all have this friend. Like the original Mr. Fogg, he is always just in time. And when he is not, then it is someone else's fault, and we, his faithful passepartouts, will always be by his side, adoring him, and at the same time thinking he’s an ignorant fool.[1] Jules Verne (1872). Around the World in Eighty Days <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/103/103-h/103-h.htm#chap04"></a><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/103/103-h/103-h.htm#chap04">https://www.gutenberg.org/files/103/103-h/103-h.htm</a></article></body>

…and I don’t refer to his punctuality

“Is everybody here? I mean, is Carl here? Ah, then I guess we can start.” That’s my boss talking. We have a scheduled meeting at work and some of us are smiling at the remark but we all know that the last person to arrive is always Carl. Why? Because he dislikes margins. He’ll be there on time, he says, which means he’ll be late.

We have this other meeting, this time with customers, at 9:00. I tell him: “Shall we meet just before it, so we can set up the camera and all?” He answers: “I’ll be there at 9:00”. Typical Carl. I love him dearly but he drives me crazy.

“But, Mr. Fogg, eighty days are only the estimate of the least possible time in which the journey can be made.”

“A well-used minimum suffices for everything.”¹

The traffic schedule app is his best friend. He plans his travels minutely. He knows exactly how much time it takes him to walk to the subway station and won't leave home a second before the estimated time, so he won't have to wait a second for the train to arrive. “And If it comes earlier?” I ask. “Well, then it shouldn’t,” he answers, because he is always right.

We all have this friend. Like the original Mr. Fogg, he is always just in time. And when he is not, then it is someone else's fault, and we, his faithful passepartouts, will always be by his side, adoring him, and at the same time thinking he’s an ignorant fool.