A pattern this consistent is not a character flaw. It is a design feature, and design features can be worked with. Every one of us runs the same shortcut, and every one of us believes we are the exception. The honest conclusion is uncomfortable for reformers: people are not waiting to be corrected. The textbook treats kindness as a preference to be revealed. In practice it is a story we tell ourselves after the fact.
The ordinary case
A pattern this consistent is not a character flaw. It is a design feature, and design features can be worked with. It is tempting to call this irrational. It is more useful to ask what it is for. Understanding people turns out to be a more urgent task than changing them, and a great deal harder. Nobody sets out to be governed by the waiting room, yet it shapes an astonishing share of the ordinary day.
