Starbucks, 8:45am Monday morning. To help speed up a lengthy line of un-caffeinated, cranky New Yorker’s, an employee was taking orders down on a “notepad” (napkin) so that when you reached the register, the only step left was to pay and wait for your coffee. Pretty standard. The man in front of me ordered some version of a venti iced skinny caramel macchiato with sugar-free syrup, an extra shot, light ice, no whip cream. Yes, light ice is apparently a thing.

Moving on, I thought, but unfortunately this fool was more than just an obnoxious coffee orderer. As he goes to pay, the cashier asks him his order in which he replies “a tall latte.” My internal monologue went nuts. I glared at him for the next 3 minutes while both of us waited for our coffee. I bit my tongue, reminding myself it’s New York City.

At the level where we are innovatively, it’s mind boggling that the most mundane day-to-day tasks are not up to speed. With all the technology that’s been made available, something as simple as a coffee line should be running efficiently and effectively. I mean at the very least, people shouldn’t be stealing. What is this, The Hunger Games?

In regards to this issue, Starbucks is on it. Back in March, Bloomberg reported that Starbucks will be testing mobile ordering later this year to speed up lines and fix some current issues. The article reported that 11% of the company’s US transactions are done through a mobile device and predicts that could double in a year. Starbucks is pretty savvy and most likely will be able to rectify their line and ordering issues, but shouldn’t that have been the starting point when it came to a mobile app? It’s funny to think that they started at paying and skipped the line.

It seems that a lot of the innovation we’ve been seeing is enhancing life rather than filling in the gaps. Now that everything has become so saturated with idea after idea leading to startup after startup, the focus has become revolved around additions rather than completions.

Don’t get us wrong, the advancements we’re seeing are groundbreaking and a lot of them are indeed improving some aspect of life, but are innovators and entrepreneurs going so far that they are missing some of the more minimalistic improvements along the way? Aspects of life that with a technological boost could become flawless and even more powerful than before.

We’ve noticed innovative shortcomings in a few other places.

The gifting industry. It’s wedding season and you missed the registry once again. Okay, fine, you’ll write a check. Easy breezy, right? Wrong. Giving money as a present sounds simpler than it actually is and apparently it’s déclassé to Venmo your friend her wedding gift. Woops. Giving a check as a gift currently entails at least four steps : writing a check, buying a card, buying a postage stamp, getting the mailing address because why would you have this prior and in some cases, one may have to visit a bank and order checks because again, why would you have this prior? Ludicrous.

The restaurant industry. Sure there are apps to recommend restaurants, give you the full review, tell you what to order, get you the reservation and even get you to the reservation, but what about once you’re there? It’s pretty crazy to think that while we’re minimizing human interaction, it is the only form of interaction when you are sitting at a restaurant. You’re at a busy restaurant on a Saturday evening and going to miss your movie because you can’t find your waiter to get your check from? Or what if you decided you want to change your order a couple minutes after ordering? No, I’m not saying we should bring back the bell pull, but unless you’re at one of the 85 New York City restaurants that are available on the Cover app or in one of the nicer airport terminals, there is little technological integration at restaurants. Sure, maybe we have to be a little patient, but Cover for example currently consists of New York and San Francisco’s higher end restaurants, the places you probably don’t go to when you’re in a rush, but the ones you sit at for hours. What about the other 31,000 restaurants on OpenTable?

Okay, these are specific and situational examples, but it’s baffling to think that these aspects of modernization are absent. The idea that you can get attire for a wedding, a date for a wedding and to a wedding in the press of a button, but giving the gift takes triple the steps. Same goes for eating. Once you’re at the restaurant, the upgraded tech savvy lifestyle we’re becoming accustomed to slowly fades away.

It’s almost as if we’re letting perfect be the enemy of the good. Ideas are being executed so quickly that they aren’t always beginning at square one. Of course, these companies know they can expand and add on to their idea along the way, but doesn’t it make sense to start simple and get more advanced? Why are we starting from the middle?

Then again maybe we should stop acting like “spoiled idiots” as Louis CK would say and appreciate the technology that is available.