Umbrellas
huge:
An umbrella doesn’t really help most of the time. You have to remember to bring it with you, but any umbrella with reasonable coverage is too large to carry conveniently. If it’s not raining perfectly straight down, or if you’re walking, or if the ground is already very wet, or if anyone else with an umbrella is nearby, your bottom half is going to get wet anyway. Then you have to continue carrying this wet umbrella throughout your day, trying to find a place to put it where it can harmlessly drip, until you forget to bring it home and have to buy another umbrella.
I lost my last umbrella about 6 months ago. I decided not to replace it immediately — rather, I’d just see how long I could go without one.
I still haven’t replaced it. I haven’t needed one.
Yes, I’ve been rained on occasionally since then. But it didn’t really matter. I just walked quickly.
Try it.
I have to disagree. I like using umbrellas. However I do agree that they are annoying to carry with you and remember.
So I did a little back-of-the-envelope calculation and figured that if I kept 5 at the office and 5 at home, I would always have one availble to bring back and forth (well, it’s possible to have 5 days that rain in the AM and not in the PM, but unlikely. I’d give it three 9’s).
When Arin went to China last month, she brought me back 10 umbrellas and so far it works great! The only catch is that you have to keep them under lock-and-key. The system fails if (a) you lend them to people or (b) they are discovered and stolen.
I agree that umbrellas are nearly useless, but the difference between “nearly” and “totally” is a significant one when it’s pouring rain and I’m carrying my laptop. I like Ben’s “1000 umbrellas” approach and that he outsourced the implementation.
