Old Fools Journal: I'm Probably Wrong and So Are You

It has come my attention lately that how a person does something and especially if that person has done that "something" in a certain way for while, that person seems to come to think that their way is the best way. It doesn't seem to apply only to older adults either but strikes at all ages. This was brought home to me a few months ago when I learned to peel a banana in a different way from a monkey. Had I peeled the banana for the monkey I would have started at the stem end and if the skin was a little tough I would have used a knife to make a little slit so I could peel it from the stem down marveling at how superior I was to the monkey because I used tools. Silly me. The monkey simply took the banana turn it up to the end opposite the stem squeezed and pulled the skin apart. No muss no fuss. Had I paid attention to the cartoonist's renditions of the banana peel on the sidewalk I would have known that. I have long thought that monkeys are the superior primate and this just confirmed it. At least for me. Not to mention that they seem to be happier than humans.

I don't feel so superior.

I have in my life been shown how to do things in some of the most complicated, convoluted ways and rather than work out a better way just worked hard to learn "how it was done". I am happy to say that not everything I have learned the "correct way to do" I accepted without question but there is enough that I now question all of my old habits and methods.

Many years ago a pilot endeavored to show how I was doing something wrong and that his way was the correct way. This particular man was one of the most FU individuals I have ever met. His method had so many steps and requirements even he couldn't do it the same way twice. This was a man who had many interests but after that demonstration and after watching him make one of the worst approaches and landings I have ever seen then exclaim that the auto-pilot would never be as good as a live pilot (such as him) I realized he had no interest in self examination. I have never seen an auto-pilot that did a worst job than him. I can't even remember his name now probably because since that event I have thought of him as "nervous and jerky". So "nervous and jerky" wherever you are, thanks for the lesson.

The best teacher I ever had would tell me the results that were expected and where to start then a demonstration of how he did it. I was expected to then work it out. His demonstration of how he did it was rarely the best way and now I know that was on purpose. Imagine how smug I felt the first time I found a better way to do it than him and then how small I felt when I found that was the way he really did it.

Things I thought I knew but was shown a better way and had to change last year:
How to fold a T-shirt. My old way really sucked compared to this.
How to season chili so that it is consistently good like SWMB0's. (she who must be obeyed)
That pants aren't always the best choice but then neither is anything else so think before dressing.
A more efficient way of removing and replacing a bike tire and tube.
After trying for many years to always use finesse instead of brute force finding that brute force is sometimes not only the best way but is the only way.

This is by no means a complete list it's just changes to a few things I have been doing the same way for a very long time. I am quite sure that I will find something else to question before the day is out.

Well here it is: Before I could finish this post I found that I need to change where I set a wine glass. I know that if you set a wine glass over or around your keyboard you will eventually pour it into your keyboard.
I now have a keyboard that I know will hold a measured four ounces of Cabernet Sauvignon.
That you will never spill a partial glass it has to be full.
That you can't really drink very well from a wine filled keyboard.
That the keyboard is useless for anything but holding wine now.

Note to self: Cover keyboard.