I spend a lot of time working in cafés with my MacBook Air. Inevitably, a triple espresso and a few hours in, nature calls and I’m faced with that typical dilemma. Having secured that holy grail of the coffee shop desk jockey, a table with access to a power outlet, I certainly don’t want to pack up my valuables and take them with me to the bathroom. But leaving the little guy (laptop) exposed just seems too risky.

Well, for a while I did just that. Lived on the bleeding edge of café security and just left my computer there. Just to prove to myself that my proximal colleagues were not all casing the joint. But most people go with the much more reasonable approach o asking someone nearby to “watch their computer.”

I would suggest a subtle pivot of this approach. First, introduce yourself to someone sitting near you and genuinely get to know them, however briefly. You’re going to interact with a stranger already why not find out about them… you never know what you might learn. Now that they know who you are, just let them know you’re going to the bathroom. They’ll get the gist without all parties having to explicitly worry about theft. Excuse to meet someone new, better likelihood that your stuff stays safe, and no need to propagate the paradigm that the world is full of thieves and ax murderers.

What are other examples of how you can make your life better assuming people are generally pretty decent?