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Voice assistants are stealing our minutes Too often, | have a conversation like this with Siri or Alexa: Me: Set a fifty minute timer. Alexa: Setting a fifteen minute timer. Me: No, cancel timer. Alexa: Fifteen minute timer canceled. Me: Set a fifty minute timer. Alexa: Setting a fifteen minute timer. Me: Stop! Cancel timer! Alexa: Fifteen minute timer canceled. Then | realized that if | ask for a fifty-one minute timer, there is no ambiguity. There’s no such thing as fifteen- one, so now it never fails. Same for forty-one, thirty- one, etc. Now I'm in the habit of setting timers for one minute longer than | need rather than spending a minute arguing with a robot. It's a weird quirk of dealing with modern technology.