What Do You Call These People?

[MJ DeMarco]

I'm in the middle of a chapter for my book and I'm having a shortage of words to describe people who don't value time ...

For example,

The guy who drives 2 hours to save $20.
The guy who takes a plane with 3 stops to save $75
The guy who waits in line 5 hours to buy the latest video game.

These people are poor valuators of time.

I'm looking for a catchy phrase to describe these types of people ...

They are "Time Bandits" or "cheapskates" for example. (Bad example, but an idea.)

Any ideas? Yveskleinsky this is right up your alley.

Thanks for the ideas.

 

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[kidgas]

We always describe something that takes a lot of time a "time sink". Maybe sticking with a plumbing thing might be appropriate. How about "time flushers", like flushing the time of their lives down the toilet.

 

[kurtyordy]

Time Losers- plays both ways
Clock Botchers
Mindless Minute Men

 

[Jill]

I guess you were looking for something more clever than "Stupid"?

They are people who clearly value money (or video games!) more than time, and don't recognize the relationship between the two. My Dad told me a long time ago "You life is made up of a finite amount of time. If you are wasting your time, you are wasting your life."

These are people whose priorities are clearly different than ours. But I can't help you with a clever descriptor, I'm afraid.

 

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[ITA]

Cheap Timers?

 

[mtnman]

Are you still doing the cross country thing?

Those who choose to take "scenic routes" just for the sake of doing it. No benefit other than the short term fixation on what it will be like, but no vision to choose wisely.

Or, "discount flyers." Those who fly from Orlando to Vegas, by way of New York, to save 20 bucks.

Gimme some more info and we can prolly come up with something good once the juices get going.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Does anyone have any great "time loser" stories?

Like the guy that sleeps outside Best Buy for 2 days so he can be the first 100 persons in the store to get a FREE 32" LCD TV. Time Loser!!

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

You all have the right idea ... yes, the cross country thing is still the guiding crux ...

So far I like "Time Loser" and "Time Depreciator"

 

[yveskleinsky]

Maybe you could call them MF's: Money first-ers. ...There are a lot of MFs on the road.

 

[AroundTheWorld]

Sorry, I don't have any ideas for you... (NOT up my alley)

But, I would suggest you stay away from anything w/ "loser" in it... too RK.

What is the driving force behind this mentality? I am related to someone like this... and I think it is a combination of being very tight w/ money (too cheap to pay for it) and a scarcity mentality.... they are clutching onto their money w/ both fists... more might not come along, so you better hang on to what you have (??)

Funny, of course, that they don't realize that time the truly scarce commodity.

 

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[Sparlin]

Busy Burners- lots of energy spent with little to show for it
Time Deniers
Time Gluttons
Day Wasters

 

[mtnman]

Clock Watchers

Time Tickers- those who spend their days a second at a time, with no regard to how many are left.

Or those activities which are time tickers. In that, you must trade being a clock zombie in order to get what you want. I.E. Xbox release! Tick tock baby.

Watching the clock to wait for Best Buy to open on Black Friday, instead of sleapin on bank! MAD COIN disease wins everytime!!! lol

Have you ever seen the sun come up in a Best Buy parking lot? You know, when they have the latest and greatest, but you can only get it without paying a premium if you spend two days outside in the freezing cold winter waiting for Black Friday doors to open up?

Your "dark day" comes. You make it through the stampede into the store alive. Your heart is trembling, but of a different sort now. You just found an empty shelf, and you're face turns red when you realize how uncomfortable it was sleeping on the sidewalk for two days. Whipped? Yep, Sony has you on their ring finger!

Imagine how you would feel if you had the power to pony up the benjamins from your computer, only to have that beaut arrive at your door in three days as you sip on your coffee.

How would that feel if you had control of your... (I don't know where I'm going with this, just trying to get into it. Good exercise for everyone!)

As you finish up this book, how empowered will you be, knowing what you know? Imagine what you can now accomplish with your life?

 

[mtnman]

Oh yeah, thanks for your hard work and "time", M to the J.

Seemed to fit, somehow.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

But, I would suggest you stay away from anything w/ "loser" in it... too RK.

I understand your point however I'm not trying to sound "RKish", but we do have similar "in your face" type styles and that polarization has served him well ... created rabid fans as well as detractors.

Steering away from the "loser" comment will get me away from my style. If I give in to the thought of "I fear offending" I will deviate from my natural writing style. If I sugarcoat, I deviate from my style.

We've already established that I will be subjected to intense hater/scrutiny/venom - so I don't feel compelled to hold back elements of my style. In my opinion, any person that sleeps outside a BestBuy for 2 days for a free TV is a pure loser.

If I can stop one person from wasting their life away outside on a sidewalk at Best Buy simply because I called em a "Time Loser" in my book, then I succeed.

I haven't made any decisions on a term, but Time Loser is one I like as well as various others mentioned here.

 

[Jonleehacker]

To me that kind of behavior is financial illiteracy.

 

[ITA]

I think the TV/black friday thing might be a bad example, because people will think, "yeah but he saved 1000 bucks", which to many sounds like it was worth it. Also to some people the experience of sitting down with 500 other dudes waiting for a PS3 or whatever is actually enjoyable - it's a bonding thing, similar to a sporting event. Even though I agree with your perspective, I can also see the logic in that.

Something that has always amazed me is people clipping coupons and then going to different supermarkets especially to get their discounted goods. If you factor in the time spent in looking for the coupons, cutting them, organizing them, then the time spent running around + the actual cost of fuel and car use, all that to save 1,5 bucks on rolls of toilet paper, it boggles the mind.

 

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[Russ H]

We actually do have a name for them here.

We call them "time suckers"-- the things we do that "suck" our lifeblood (time) away from us.

We actually had a staff contest last quarter to identify the biggest "time suckers" in our Inn. Person who came up w/the top sucker got $100 (it was voted on by all staff).

Time suckers are things-- things we do that take too much time out of our lives.

I suppose you could use the double meaning (as a person who is a sucker for wasting so much time), but that's not our use of the word.

-Russ H.

 

[Jill]

Not to take this too far off the path of your OP. But I think it does come down to personal values. For instance, I would fly to Paris and back tomorrow, if the value of the miles I earned equaled or surpassed the cost of the ticket, because I value the comfort of luxury travel when I travel for pleasure (in the future).

While on the surface, it appears to be a complete waste of 24 hours, it has to be measured against what I would be doing with that time otherwise. If I sacrificed 10 billable hours at a high rate, then the ticket just became prohibitively expensive (lost opportunity cost). But if I was just going to surf the web all day, go to the mall for a few hours and watch a few hours of TV that night, then suddenly it looks like a pretty decent trade-off because I got 24 hours in complete seclusion (if that's what I wanted) to read, make notes, work on my laptop and plan out my next quarter. There would be no interruptions from cell phone, neighbors, barking dogs, screaming children or temptations to just mess around on the computer. (I've done this 7-8 times!!) GREAT "think" time.

 

[jportz]

An example of younger generation time-wasting in my city at the moment is a new club that has just opened.. The time-wasters here aren't necessarily trading time for money, but time for (in my opinion) the opinion of others of them.

People wait up to 3 hours for the chance to ge into a club that has so many people in it that the average time to get a drink is another 1/2 hr. I suppose its all relative to how important these people want to say they've been to this place, but there are a dozen other clubs within several blocks.. Is 3 hrs, out of a maximum 5-6 hours on the town (that's probably generous) better than going to the new place in a few weeeks when the buzz has quietened down..

 

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[MonTexan]

Time Vampire

Recently saw this funny youtube clip and thought the term "time vampire" was great! Listen close....it's in there. (There's quite a bit of language on the video)

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AyVh1_vWYQ]YouTube - Sony Releases Stupid Piece Of Shit That Doesn't F*cking Work[/ame]

 

[yveskleinsky]

That was good! Glad to know that I'm not the only one who develops a spontaneous case of Turets who it comes to figuring out technology!

...I have heard the term "energy vampire" before (super clingy, needy, insecure people who need constant reassurance), but had never heard of "time vampire" before. I like it.

 

[randallg99]

idjits

 

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[Jill]

That was good! Glad to know that I'm not the only one who develops a spontaneous case of Turets who it comes to figuring out technology

NOO!! You're definitely not alone! (But you probably already knew that, from my late nite tirades when things aren't going just "so"!)

Other than tennis and poker, nothing turns me into a sailor faster than uncooperative technology! (and I'm not so proud of that!)

 

[MBinMT]

My parents and my wife's parents (all in their 70's) are the classic example of earlier generations doing this very thing. Clip coupons and spend $19 in gas to save $20 at 5 grocery stores, which values the 4 hours at 12.5 cents per hour if they both go. Our in house term for that kind of activity is "retired".

My personal take is that they are "chronologically devalued" in their own minds. They never in their lives have ever valued time at more than what they could save in real dollars, personal time invested not being a valid counterbalance.

 

[CardinalsFan]

here's an example for ya MJ:

a new IKEA store just opened up near my parents house in Charlotte, and there was a line of people camped outside the store for 2 days because the first 500 got a free lamp and breakfast.



how about IKEA CAMPERS

 

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[fanocks2003]

Ideas:

Time morons
Time illiterates
Time Scrooges
Time Crammies
Time Sleepers
Time Wackers

Well, very much the same theme, but "Time" seems a must.

 

[AroundTheWorld]

maybe the heart of this "condition" is that people don't yet fully understand that they can't get time back. That they are mortal. It is one thing to know it intellectually, but another to internalize the understanding and change the way you live.

 

[NoMoneyDown]

It's comical how some people see the value of a "few dollars", yet cannot fathom the same when the amount is larger. Probably a separate chapter in your book, MJ, but along the same lines of time wasters. IOW, some people will squabble over a purchase price of $25 vs. $20, but think nothing of buying a $25,000 vehicle or $250,000 home without haggling much (or even finding something just as good, while not as fancy) for a much cheaper price - thereby saving $1,000's, $10,000's, or even $100,000's.

 

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[John]

Time Splurgers
Penny-wise, Minute-foolish.

 

[AroundTheWorld]

Penny-wise, Minute-foolish.

I like this one. A little long, but you could always shorten to penny-wise MFers.