Sure, Efficiency is Great, But Have You Tried Humans?

Sometimes efficiency comes at the cost of connection. A strange little layover years ago reminded me what I don’t want to automate away.

A few years ago, my husband and I had a long layover in Newark.
We were supposed to be on our way to Dublin, but we missed our connection and ended up stuck in the airport for hours. Not the romantic kind of hours where you wander around dreaming of where you're headed next (or the ice cold Guinness you’ll have when you land). The other kind. The kind that feels like you’re inside an endless little time bubble that forgot it was part of the real world.

My husband is an extrovert. He loves a busy bar, a seat in the middle of the action, to make friends with the bartender. It makes the time pass faster. But this terminal… it didn’t have that kind of energy. It barely had workers. Most of the shops didn’t have cashiers. You’d walk in, grab something, scan your items, and then tap your card and walk out. That was it.

We ordered dinner from a re…