Chat with a retired barista about why he never rushed shots of espresso

He said 'good coffee waits for no one, but it also waits for no reason to rush', and that hit different because I realized how much I hurry through my own break just to get back to work, has anyone else had a random stranger say something that stuck with you?

3 comments

3 Comments

king.aaron1mo ago

Did he say anything about why he thinks people rush through the good parts of their day in the first place? Because it feels like most of us are trained to treat breaks like a chore to get through instead of something we actually deserve. I wonder if slowing down makes people uncomfortable or if it's just the guilt of not being productive that gets us.

cole3561mo ago

Yeah but what if it's not just guilt though? Like what if we've actually rewired our brains to get a little dopamine hit from rushing around and checking stuff off a list. The stillness of a real break just doesn't give us that same rush anymore, so it feels boring or wrong. Ever notice how when you finally sit down to relax your hand still reaches for your phone? That's the part I'm trying to figure out.

alice_hart26d ago

Notice how everything is set up to keep that cycle going. Grocery stores, social media, even the way work emails are designed, they're all built to keep us in that checking-things-off mode. We've forgotten that doing nothing is actually a skill you have to practice, not just something that happens naturally when you stop moving. Your hand reaching for the phone makes perfect sense when you realize we've been training it to do exactly that for years now.