Some fine sources of friction

As so much of the world has moved inexorably in the direction of removing friction from commercial and social transactions (think 1-click purchasing from Amazon and/or the online purchase of all goods and services, delivered to your door), there's naturally a counter school of thought that lauds the benefits of friction and the slowing down of commerce and also social interactions. 

For example, when I asked the guy at Circle City Books in Pittsboro if he listed books for purchase online and he said, "Why would I want to do that? The whole purpose of having the store is to get out and see people." 

For the same reason, I almost never order food for delivery. I would much prefer to go out and see the merchants and patrons in restaurants. This was particularly acute during the pandemic. I wanted the human contact and also to offer it to them. Same with groceries. Though I understand why people with young kids and two jobs would not want to waste time with supermarkets (and I kind of remember that from when my kids were young), I love going to the store and seeing the people. You never know who you're going to run into. Admittedly I only really formally realized the fruits of this when my career took on a sales dimension around 2003, but as I think back to growing up what were the malls to us but the places where a lot of our social lives (outside of schools and sports) happened. You went to the mall not so much to buy stuff as to see who was there. 

At the office, I now park in a garage where I have to come down to the ground floor, walk across to the office building, then ascend again to the 3rd floor where my co-working space is. This all adds friction or transaction costs to leaving for lunch, creating a strong incentive to bring lunch and eat in the common space. So now we have a stable BYO lunch klatsch with a rotating cast of characters.

In residential neighborhoods, there's a clear recognition that the absence of friction combined with people's incessant hurry and poor time management (I am as guilty as anyone) creates a need for artificial friction in the form of low speed limits, speed bumps, children at play signs, etc. On much of the East Coast, the absence of predators has created an abundance of the greatest natural and variable source of friction, the flocks of hungry and entitled deer that clog our streets, nature's wandering speed bumps.