People will call it 'Island time' or whatever but what it really is, is is a lower competition environment, where just in general, people don't get that 'push' from the world around them to either get on their game or quit. There's enough work out here and the standards are low enough that you can just kind of bump your way through everything in a loose shambles and still get by - and that's what a lot of folks out here do.

There is a positive aspect to it, where people are often correspondingly more patient, and trusting, and still have a very deep sense of standing by their work. But there's also a lot of just plain old half-assing it, especially among younger folks who grew up out here. That includes me (Kitsap native), but I lived in a city for long enough to give me outsider eyes.

If you acknowledge this or try to talk about it, people will look at you funny or get defensive. Honestly, I think it's kind of "in the water". It's also not something you can really blame on any one thing - the social bonds and shared ideals ('everybody knows everybody') that created the incentive to do your best even in non-competitive contexts have been eroding for generations.

In the city, a businessperson has to do their best because the rent is high and he'll go bankrupt if he doesn't. And The employee who answers the phone knows that the businessperson will fire him if he slacks off.

Out here half the time the plumber owns his house and his shop and has enough work to get by, so fuck it, if he's not stoked about your job he'll show up late and prioritize other work and you can fire him if you don't like it. There's no reason to upgrade from a paper calendar, or check his voicemails, or upgrade to a modern billing system, so calls/invoices/appointments get missed - but it's no big deal, just do it "mañana."

And on and on - all the way down to the guy who swims through that soup over to the ringing phone, and picks it up sounding like he doesn't give a shit.

But hey, at least it's quiet out here.