What’s the plan, Stan?

By the time I finally rolled out of bed, Ellick had already taken off and gotten breakfast, checked the internet and argued with our apartment people. I was still lounging around in my boxers when he got back. “So what’s the plan for the day” he asked me? “Well I was thinking of going to the beach, and then getting some food” I replied. I love a well developed plan.

Ellick liked the idea, but thought we needed some more details. “What beach? How do we get there? What are we doing afterwards?” Then things got complicated.

Ellick: “Should we take the bus?”
Kashif: “Do you mean the collectivo or the micro-bus?
Ellick: “The bus”
Kashif: “Well they call the bus the collectivo, and then there are the tiny little micro-busses
Ellick: “Where do we catch it?”
Kashif: “Well we get the collectivo on Av. Copacabana and the micro-bus near the beach”
Ellick: “Lets take the bus to somewhere near the shopping mall and the beach”
Kashif: “You mean the collectivo?”
Ellick: “I mean the bus!”
Kashif “I’m gonna go take a shower now”

The thing I’ve noticed about planning is we seem to spend more time on talking about making the plan, than actually making the plan. I think because our approach is backwards. My South American friends actually do kind of make plans. Someone will randomly say something like “Let’s take a cab to Lapa” and then you have a plan. And when it’s a big group of people sometimes two or three people in the group will talk amongst each other and come up with something. You make sure everyone is cool with it and then if anyone objects, you talk about it.

It results in plans being made quickly and efficiently. Of course, sometimes the plan is completely crazy, as you can tell by looking around South America. But other times they come up with great ideas. Like selling food in restaurants per kilo, or having a seperate driver and ticket-taker on the bus.

Usually the conversations start with "Well we could go to Barra da Tijuca or Copacabana or Flamengo and here are all the relative merits of those choices, but I have no opinion on which one we should choose" This is invariably a lie. The game begins with the other party being forced to probe and determine which one of those options is in actuality the correct. South American woman also seem to like to play this game, but maybe that's just universal to women.

And then someone else says “Yeah but it’s kinda hot today” when what they really mean is “I don’t want to take the bus” And then you spend 15 minutes talking about if it’s hot or not, and you finally figure out that they’re cool with it as long as you take a taxi.

And then eventually when all the information is out on the table someone finally says “let’s go to the beach at Barra de Tijucu.” Plans are evil, I say just live in the moment and do whatever sounds like a good idea at any given time. What’s the worst that could possibly happen?