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Comment by francoisdevlin | Hacker News Reader

I think Germans are the ONLY exception to the rule. Of course, someone will provide a counter example, I'm sure :)

Swiss, as others have said. My cousins picked me up at the train station in Interlaken, having driven there from Berne. I saw them drive into the parking lot up the street. Counting the time it took them to walk from the parking lot to the train station entrance, they arrived within 60 seconds of the agreed-upon time.

Not to mention the clockwork nature of their transportation system... And the Alps... gah, what I am doing sitting at this desk?

Japanese.... In Japan being late is seen as seriously wrong.

Austria, Switzerland, all or most of Scandinavia...Probably most or all central/north/north western European societies.

IIRC Australia is also the same.

All of your examples are Germanic cultures. Notably, I think this is true in the German speaking part of Switzerland, but not nearly as much in Suisse Romande.

Most of Central Europe is Slavic.

I'll bet it's the same in Russia and many other Slavic countries.

Really? Huh. I guess. Being someone with ADD I've stopped stressing about being consistently 5 minutes late, but I guess you're right, people are/were disproportionately upset with it until they've come to know me for a while and know I'm often like this.

Although sometimes it backfires and they get more annoyed because "Can't you fix that if you know it happens every time?"

No, you fuckwit, if I could reliably fix it I would have. It's not for lack of trying, so back the fuck off!

Swiss people.

Swiss :D

how else will they make use of all those fancy and accurate watches then?

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