I used to be one of those guys that could see up ahead a merging lane and would immediately recognize that the appropriate thing to do would be to merge where I am currently in traffic. I certainly would not allow myself to to be one of those jerks that run right up to the end of the line and merges at the last minute. Cutting off the whole line of traffic that has been patiently waiting in the single available lane and serving only themselves. It felt important to consider the frustration that they may be causing for the other more considerate people (like myself) that saw the merge up ahead and merged early out of courtesy for others. In doing so, I would often feel frustration as my lane struggled to move ahead and the open lane next to me had cars flying by. I imagine them to be driving past me, not a care in the world, merging at the last minute and saving themselves plenty of time, while I sat there fuming, having done the right thing societally and being punished for having that consideration. This is how things were, just nice people in the world being taken advantage of by those that are all too eager to take and take.

And then I saw the ad.

A Public Service Announcement detailing the benefits of Zipper merging. It stated that Zipper merging is faster and more efficient and thus a better to do than to unnecessarily merge early. Zipper merging is, in fact, optimal and the correct way to manage traffic, and that you should be in whichever lane splits the traffic best. This allows for merging traffic in a different, but in a more fair and equitable way.

This not only blew my mind, but it was so infuriating and frustrating to see. How could the government, and polite society as a whole, acknowledge and recognize that this last-minute merging is actually superior than the much more considerate and equitable early merge approach… I heard the rationale and it was logically sound.

I started to imagine how it would feel for me to do it and if could I get past that feeling of being an jerk. Then I started doing it… and boy… it made sense. I started to find myself thinking people that merging early was just causing problems. It make me think about those who wave away their turn at a four-way stop. It’s clearly their turn to go, but instead they’re trying to be nice and wave you forward… what jerks (not really)! Don’t they understand that they’re just causing confusion and delay?

Following the societally accepted rules make sense and improves the flow of expectation. This has the added bonus of improving not only your personal outcomes, but collectively the outcomes of society. It may initially seem or feel selfish, but in the end, it makes the most sense to do. Is this self gaslighting? Is this cognitive dissonance, self rationale because whatever we do personally is going to be the correct thing to do in our minds? It feels, to me, more that this is adapting and optimizing for a metric of reducing burden and frustration in all… but that is what I would say to justify selfish pursuits!

There are more directions of thought that can split off from this… particularly as a means of adapting this kind of thinking to a more general life philosophy. This perspective may be attractive to those seeking to optimize themselves and their circumstances.