Why Does The Other Line Always Move Faster?: The Myths And Misery, Secrets And Psychology Of Waiting In Line

How we wait, why we wait, what we wait for—waiting in line is a daily indignity that we all experience, usually with a little anxiety thrown in (why is it that the other line always moves faster?!?). This smart, quirky, wide-ranging book considers the surprising science and psychology—and the sheer misery—of the well-ordered line. It takes us from boot camp (where the first lesson is to teach recruits how to stand rigidly in line) to the underground bunker beneath Disneyland’s Cinderella Castle (home of the world’s most advanced queue management technologies); from the 2011 riots in London (where rioters were observed patiently taking their turns when looting shops), to the National Voluntary Wait-in-Line days in China (to help train their non-queuing populace to wait in line like Westerners in advance of the 2008 Olympics). Citing sources ranging from Harvard Business School professors to Seinfeld, the book emphasizes that it’s not about the time spent waiting, but how the circumstances of the wait affect perception of time.