The Great Depression; My Solutions for the Modern Economy

So maybe I'm not the only one feeling this way. Lately I wake up every morning in a complete state of panic. I have weird dreams and then awaken to a beautiful California day and a sense of dread.

Some say it's the unreasonable number of things I'm up to at any one time, to which I say "well then I'm just not trying hard enough!"

In any case, as you all know, I'm in business school right now. While I was in law school I saw how that changed how I thought and operated, but now I find myself undergoing a different type of change. I'm an efficiency machine. Today I heard my friend get off the phone with someone at work about the schedule and I looked at her -- oh so knowingly -- and actually said "Operations management issues, huh?"

B school is taking over my life, and by my life I mean my mind. It's true. Basically I find the entire world operating inefficiently and have to control my desire to consult for everybody all the time. I see business school everywhere:

Recent examples:

*I wanted to tell the people at the dog pound last Saturday that they should have an automated call system to indicate the status of your wait for dogs (Queue Analytics); if their goal is to efficiently adopt pets out, they certainly need to operate better. And they need to train their front desk people not to be bitchy (Human Resources). I also felt that they could do much more with their internet presence and pet descriptions. IT, people!

*I wanted to scream at some publishers recently for not immediately issuing my clients' contracts and checks. (Business Law, Accounting, Information Systems)

*I finally understood the value of the bonds my parents had tucked in my baby book (Finance). (note to self: find them!)

*I was watching ESPN with friends, and the show was interrupted for a commercial by the sell-your-gold people. You know, where you send your gold and they respond with $ for the weight in gold. (Acceptance by performance is a unilateral contract, by the way, thank you Business Law). We discussed why they would possibly advertise something meant for old ladies on ESPN.

Then my friends pointed out that it was probably for old men to become inspired to go snatch their woman's jewelry and hock it. Thank you Marketing!

And so on. I find myself astounded that anyone would want to run a small store by the way. The pain of ordering inventory and managing it can not be underestimated (Operations Management). I find myself torn between supporting my local Cortez Mart and not wanting to give them the trouble of having to replace that one candybar!

The economy frankly scares me these days. I work for four different organizations and still think twice before ordering my latte. It's just not right.