Stew

The world is full of stupid people who waste your time. There are a few kinds, and there are some that are misleading.

The first kind does things that somehow involve you spending time to a) rectify matters, b) avoid events, c) expiate sins, d) compensate losses.

The second kind offers to do something which could be useful and you find out eventually that is useless. This is called bait-and-switch.

The third kind somehow thinks they have a lien on your time. That is to say, they think they own your time. This is because they happen to be related to you, have contracted you for some service, or have paid/are paying you. They then proceed to become the first kind, but with threats and menaces involving money and work.

The fourth kind remove your time without your connivance, collaboration or cooperation. They do things like disable or injure you, blow up your belongings, firebomb your city, nuke your country. You cannot treat them as you might treat the first kind, for resistance is probably futile.

Sometimes, my students think they are wasting my time or that I am wasting theirs. The latter is more likely. I think it is my professional duty to spend time on students, and besides, I like it or I wouldn't be doing it. However, it is still possible to waste my time, normally by acting like one of the four kinds listed above. But I normally give a few 'free' tries first.

As for me wasting their time? Well, it could be avoided, I suppose, if students told me that what I was providing so cheerfully was not what they wanted at all. I would then either excuse myself or excuse them, or perhaps just stop teaching. Whatever it is, I do want very much not to waste anyone's time, so I wish they'd let me know.

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Edit: Just a thought which the Dancer provoked – some expenditure of time is necessary, and such necessary expenditures are not waste. So if people spend my time and that expense is necessary, they aren't wasting it.