[dgallagher]

It's quicker sometimes.

This morning I made some oatmeal. I took a 1/2 measuring cup, scooped out some oatmeal, shook it quickly to remove the overflow, threw it in a pot, and dropped the measuring cup in my sink. It took around 5-10 seconds.

If I had to do the same by weight, I would have had to get my scale, put on a bowl, zero the scale, slowly start pouring oatmeal onto the scale until it reached the desired weight, throw that into a pot, put the bowl in my sink, and put the scale away. That'll probably run around 15-20 seconds. If I screw up and poured too much into the bowl by accident, it'll take a lot longer to correct than briefly shaking a pre-sized 1/2 measuring cup.

Other times a scale is much easier to use too; it just depends on the context.

[lobster_johnson]

You would put the pot directly on the scale, surely. No need for an intermediate container.

[ghc]

You'd put a pot of boiling water on a scale? Wouldn't that risk damaging it?

[lobster_johnson]

I don't make oatmeal, so I don't know the exact procedure, but if one is bring the water to a boil before putting in the oats, then the simple solution is just to use your serving bowl — the one you will eat the cooked meal from — instead. I do that with pasta, for example.

[rmc]

The extra 10 seconds are an acceptable cost when it comes to trying to figure out how add 3/4 of a cup of margarine.