The Microwave effect.

The year was 2002. It was a typical busy day at Sears. We were working our asses off in 100+ degree heat, loading people's treadmills and 32 inch TV sets into their cars that were too small to fit it, and never doing it fast enough for anyone, despite there being a room full of people waiting and it was obvious there'd be a bit of a wait.

"It's all because of the microwave," this older gentleman said to me in a friendly tone as I took out his merchandise.

I had no idea what he was talking about and was lost in "work" mode, so I only nodded and gave a "yeah" in response.

"Ever since the microwave was invented," he continued, "everyone has been so impatient. I call it the Microwave Effect. As soon as you could cook a baked potato in 10 minutes instead of 2 hours, nothing is quick enough anymore. Everything takes too long."

I stopped and pondered this for a moment. Goddamn if he wasn't right. As soon as people could rewarm food or even cook entire (bad) meals in literally fractions of the time it would take to cook in the oven, people's tolerance for waiting for anything longer than the time to wait for a bag of popcorn went to hell. The Microwave Effect. Suddenly the whole world and all the assholes that always seem to be so busy to go nowhere or to do anything in particular made sense.