In a Roundabout Way

It wouldn’t be Christmastime without a Choice Mindset centered on our annual Christmas card signing. It’s not that we feel obligated to provide a Mindset about the cards, it’s just that there’s so much good Mindset fodder produced when we undertake this yearly hand-cramping experience.

Thanks to the traffic engineers’ careful time-keeping and card-counting, we know that the maximum capacity of this Christmas card roundabout is about 12 cards signed per minute. After further analysis, we noticed that the system does experience occasional backups (with peak hour volume of nine cards per minute), caused by bathroom break queues, signers using cell phones, and disagreements over radio stations. And like any roundabout, safety is enhanced, as there are no drinks on the table; we clumsy engineers know that spills are inevitable.

In any case, we encourage you to take a moment to appreciate the signatures on the card when you get a chance—both the efficiencies (Jeff Puthoff’s quick scribble and Dan Perreira’s teeny-tiny print) and the lack of coffee stains. Just watch out for perspiration stains, as Jonathan claims he broke a sweat keeping up with that blistering 12 cards-per-minute pace.

*Clockwise from top left: traffic engineers Mike Goettemoeller, Brad Walterbusch, Craig Eley, and Jonathan Murphy, who isn’t technically a traffic engineer, but who says he took some traffic engineering classes in college.)