Bob and an unnamed person are trying to exchange contact information over the phone but are getting confused by all the different communication methods. They propose complicated multi-step plans to email, fax, or leave voicemails with each other's contact details but realize it would be simpler to deliver the information in person since their offices are nearby. The conversation highlights how technology allows people to waste time very efficiently while thinking they are saving time.
5. - Just a minute, let me check. -NICOOOLE, ... WHAT’S MY E-MAIL ADDRESS?
6. - No, no, that’s my home e-mail address! - Listen, I can’t find it. Let me check and call you back.
7. - Oh!... You’re going for lunch... OK, I’ll send you the address by fax. You’ll have it when you get back. OK?
8. OK. So give me your fax number. - What! You don’t know it?
9. - OK, here’s what we’ll do. You e-mail me your fax number and I’ll fax you my e-mail address. - No, that won’t work. Wait, I’m getting mixed up... Let me think...
11. - What’s your cell-phone number? - Oh, your battery is dead ... Mine too...
12. - OK, listen, here’s what we’ll do... - You charge your cell-phone battery, I’ll call you in a couple of hours and leave you my e-mail address in your voice mail.
13.
14. - That’s plan A. Now for plan B! I send myself an e-mail to see what my e-mail address is and then I record a message for you in my voice mail....
15. … when you get it, you send me the answer on my pager... … so then, I send you a fax with my e-mail address.
16.
17.
18. - But actually, I have a small question... … what was I supposed to send you by e-mail? My e-mail address, my fax number, my cell number, pager, telephone?
19. - Oh! You don’t remember either. - It would probably be a good idea to have periodic bilateral coordination meetings concerning protocols for internal communications.
20. - But anyway, since your office is at the other end of the corridor, I’ll come by to pick it up in 2 minutes... OK? Bye!
21. And the moral…: Thanks to technology, we can now waste time with an efficiency until now unimaginable, all in the name of saving time…
