Perfection

[John Piwaron]

How many of you, the skilled readers of this forum, make flawless projects? :) There must be some.

That said, when mistakes happen, when things don't go as planned, how do you feel about it and what do you do? When it happens to me I try to learn from it. What happened? Why'd it happen? What could I do different next time? How do I correct what happened? Each of those is actually a story in itself. Is a new technique needed? A new tool?

I think deciding on a fix, or correction, is highly dependent on what went wrong. A mis-cut tenon? Part too short? Round an edge over while sanding? Carcase not square?

Maybe something can be glued on. Maybe the design is altered. Maybe a new part is needed.

How do you feel about it? Does learning from the mistake help?

I'll say this about my own projects. After it's done, I like some quite a lot more than others depending on how many mistakes were made. Yet anyone that sees any of them think they all look great. I can't help but think some of them should be burned.

[Mike Henderson]

I don't dislike some of my projects because of craftsmanship problems, but because of design problems. I design all my projects and some just don't come out looking very good.

Mike

[Andrew Joiner]

When I made things for a living,my definition of perfection was when the client was happy. Now in my hobby work I have time to get closer to flawless work.

Flawless is different than perfection for me. I can make something like a table with no visible flaws. However ,as the designer, I may think latter that a curve might look better if deeper. Even then I don't think of the table as imperfect.

The closest way to get to perfection for me would be to build a design over and over and refine it each time.
Wood shrinks and swells so that makes perfection elusive.

[Metod Alif]

I use all my (whatever I have) skills to give some flaws to my projects. I just cannot explain why the flaws are not intentional.
Best wishes,
Metod

[Richard Coers]

No such thing as a flawless project. Perfection will not be achieved. The definition of flawless should be the question here.

[Greg Peterson]

I've produced some exquisite and exotic kindling. One step of my latest build required three attempts. The amount of waste was minimal, it was the set back in time that was disappointing. The end result is far from perfect or flawless. However, I learned a lot from the build and developed my skill set.

In the end, even though the build was far from perfect or flawless, I am satisfied with the results. I gave it my best effort and learned a lot in the process. I avoided the "That's good enough" thoughts that have crept into previous builds.

Talent will produce a beautiful design, but skill is the guiding hand and inner voice that allow talent to shine. And I have yet to find any shortcuts. Sorry trees.

[Mel Fulks]

Modern machine made flat surfaces have changed perceptions about what a flaw is. Anything flat and shiny can be deemed perfect even if its hideous.An understanding of the value of pattern, texture, allusion, fitness for purpose,and what makes a good design is too rare. One thing that could help is calling Post Modern design what it really is....hodge podge . Look at these public buildings with interior walls made of squares of plywood made from one piece of wood.The day they are finished the architect will walk in and point to some flaw ,usually a fly.A perfect fly being blamed for a bad formulaic design. Look at an ancient mosaic floor,not two pieces of tesserae are the same but the floor is perfect. Well, a satisfying rant!

[Bill Wyko]

To be a top notch woodworker, you must be the best at hiding your mistakes. That being said, I use to get upset and sometimes down right pissed. Now I get a calm over myself, take a short break and remind myself that this is where I separate the good from the bad projects. The important thing is to be sure you come away with a lesson. I don't always, but make the same mistake 3 or 4 times and you (I) eventually stop making that mistake and are a little bit better than you were before. Don't let the mistakes get the best of you, let them make you better.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Like Mike said, some of my projects are flawlessly executed, but the design can make me think, "next time I'll do this". For instance, the curio cabinet built to look like a scaled down federal period secretary is made out of the wrong wood. My daughter's dresser built to look of the same period, but use modern slides would have been better if I would have skipped the Blum, and used old techniques. Seriously, we're woodworkers, and most of us have said at some point "I could do that better". That mentality makes perfection elusive.

[Greg Peterson]

"Don't let the mistakes get the best of you, let them make you better."

How true. To expand on this I have learned that making a mistake is quite natural. Learning how to conceal, hide or minimize their presence in lieu of eliminating them is where skill comes into play. When I have made the same mistake twice, or found yet another way to err on the same part, I leave the shop and find something else to take my mind off the project. Get some mental distance and recharge the grey matter. Weeds usually pay for my errors.

[John Piwaron]

Like Mike said, some of my projects are flawlessly executed, but the design can make me think, "next time I'll do this". For instance, the curio cabinet built to look like a scaled down federal period secretary is made out of the wrong wood. My daughter's dresser built to look of the same period, but use modern slides would have been better if I would have skipped the Blum, and used old techniques. Seriously, we're woodworkers, and most of us have said at some point "I could do that better". That mentality makes perfection elusive.

"I could do that better" - that's a good part of it. Sometimes it's a design issue. :)

[Andrew Hughes]

Two kinds of mistakes: a slip of the hand and a slip of the mind.
I good book to read is the unknown craftsman

[Sam Murdoch]

I once had a client who reprimanded me for seeking perfection. I worked in his house for more than 2 years - soooooo much woodworking - so he saw me in action more than most people. He told me that a characteristic of oriental/persian carpets is that they all had a mistake somewhere or somehow incorporated into the carpet. The humble thinking behind this was - "Only God is Perfect". Even if you are an agnostic or an atheist it's a good perspective. I often find myself laughing out loud on projects after striving to bring all my years of trade craft and fastidious woodworking skills to an aspect of my work I still fall on my face and get an open joint or miss the big picture and do something 1st that should have been 3rd :confused:. Only God is perfect I say, and commence to fixing my mistake. Very often I am not laughing. You do your very best through every phase of the project - sometime that is more than on other days - and each step of perfection strived for will make the next step towards perfection more possible. And yes, good woodworking also has a feature of good fixing. Just the way it is...

[Andrew Joiner]

I'll say this about my own projects. After it's done, I like some quite a lot more than others depending on how many mistakes were made. Yet anyone that sees any of them think they all look great. I can't help but think some of them should be burned.

We are free to burn our mistakes if we want. I think I'm better off keeping them to learn from, but that's just me.

I have a true story on the topic. I attended a party at a newly rebuilt house owned by very rich man named Bob. Bob had the old house torn down to almost just the foundation and had a new incredibly detailed home built in it's place. He spared no expense. Custom carved entry doors with leaded glass graced the entry. Bob employed the best of local talent to build the kitchen and built-in furniture. He had a very elaborate hvac system. For a house of that size it looked very complicated,sorta like you'd see in a big commercial building.
I was thinking Bob loves fine custom woodwork, but he's obsesses about heating and air conditioning. Bob probably spent well over a million dollars on the house.

3 years after the party I asked a friend who worked for Bob how the house was. He said Bob had a dispute with his original hvac contractor about the elaborate systems performance. Bob called in another hvac expert to help. The hvac expert told Bob he was mislead actually conned by the original hvac contractor. The majority of the most expensive hvac equipment was not even needed. Bob had plenty of money to straighten out the hvac problems, but he chose not to take that route.

What happened was Bob got mad and bulldozed the entire house down!

[Roger Rayburn]

Whether or not it is a mistake depends on whether or not there are any witnesses. If there are no witnesses, it may be joinery research or it may be an architectural enhancement

[Bill Wyko]

Something else that happens after years of repairing mistakes is, a different mentality towards planning. I guess I reflect on mistakes more now before the projects begin rather than after. It allows me a clearer plan of the small steps. For instance, I made a big mistake on my box for the contest. I applied my glue to my sub straight and stuck my veneer down. I then put it in the vacuum bag, veneer face down on a piece of 1/4" thick aluminum. I had sanded some glue off the aluminum plate earlier so it had the scratch marks from the sanding. When I went to remove my piece, the glue had bled through the veneer & stuck to the plate. When I tried to separate it, it split down the center of my sub straight leaving 1/2 the veneer broken & stuck down. I now know the next time to cover the plate with aluminum foil before putting anything like this in the vacuum bag. A high price to pay but a lesson well learned.

[paul cottingham]

I build for the sheer joy of building. I am sure that many people here would recoil in horror at the imperfections in my work, and at my blase attitude towards them. Do I always try to improve? of course. Do I care if it is perfect as long as it is functional and reasonably good looking? Not a chance.
This keeps woodworking fun, inspirational, and relaxing for me.

[Russell Sansom]

I have written software for 3 decades. Sometimes life and death ( The design and execution of cockpit displays for research aircraft) were possibly in the balance. Perfection has been there for me. Once in a while it had to be. One way I have thought about it is that I'm perfect to a certain resolution. It's a handy way to think about the puzzle. Using this point of view I can talk to a test pilot and describe where HE and I ( mostly men. Not all ) have had to make compromises. Where the failings are. Where to two of us have had to sweep a paradox under a rug. I guess it's really a case of heightened awareness of picking one's battles.

Writing real-time, state of the art software is very similar to wood working. The steps are similar. One thing is conscientiously registered against another. When two things don't quite line up, something has to be shaved off one of them. And like that. Perfection often requires an infinite regress and one has to draw the line somewhere.

In my case, it's a great question. Dealing with it sometimes makes my life go 'round. In woodworking, I pick what I want to be perfect and I let other parts be less so. I guess it's one of the reasons I've built musical instruments over the years. As a rule, cosmetically they need to look perfect. My earlier instruments, for me, needed to sound fantastic ( I'm calling that a kind of perfection ) and I was willing to let their appearance take a back seat. These days I want both aspects to be as perfect as I can make them. Then I can sit back and see what has to give ( as an example, one of the casualties can be longevity ). If that isn't acceptable, then chuck that violin into the fireplace and build another one.

One last thought pops out of all this. Once we really have the chops and our technical ability isn't the limiting factor, isn't it a time-vs.-results equation?

About as coherent as I want to be at midnight on a Sunday.
Cheers,

Russ

[Jamie Lynch]

I used to be worried about my mistakes, then a wise old woodworker told me the only difference between an amateur and professional was how well he hid his mistakes. I like to call them "design features". There's no need to get upset, it's just another challenge to work through.
FWW has a good article on fixing common joinery mistakes in the current issue.

[John Piwaron]

Whether or not it is a mistake depends on whether or not there are any witnesses. If there are no witnesses, it may be joinery research or it may be an architectural enhancement

Funny but true

[Jason Roehl]

As a longtime friend relates one of his seminary professor's admonitions, "Don't let the perfect become the enemy of the good."

Cheap, fast, good; pick two.

Russell, I'm curious as to what you might mean by perfect software (such as the cockpit displays)? Did you write thousands (or more) lines of code, and have them perform flawlessly the first time? Or was "perfection" the end result of many iterations of the code after countless hours of debugging, simulation and testing? (No disrespect here, just trying to get an OT handle on your perspective.)

As for woodworking, I think "flawless" is a nebulous term related to purpose of the item. Does the little speck of dust in the finish in the corner on the underside of an end table matter? If it's for personal use or built as a present for a relative or one of a run of dozens, probably not. If it's a $100,000 commissioned piece by a world-renowned artisan, then it probably does.

[Jeff Duncan]

I don't believe in flawless, there's a lot of stuff that looks flawless, but that just means you have to look harder;) I view mistakes as lessons, each one makes me better at what I do. I've never completed a project and walked away thinking that is was perfect...or even close to perfect. There's always some little details that most people would never find that I'm not happy with. I know there are guys out there doing better quality work than me, and there are guys out there who can't match what I do. At then end of the day my clients are happy and that's what counts:D

JeffD

[Russell Sansom]

Russell, I'm curious as to what you might mean by perfect software (such as the cockpit displays)? Did you write thousands (or more) lines of code, and have them perform flawlessly the first time?
Jason,
My style has been to start with a tiny first program that worked without flaw. I then "grew" it like an onion, adding layers. I would build "models" by separating sub systems and running them by themselves using the same idea. I always thought of this as an organic method. I shudder when I hear programmers say they wrote the software then they put it through the "debugging" phase. I just always preferred to write software without bugs in the first place.
I sometimes ran into a problem as I added to the previously flawless core, but I rarely had a "bug." I could put my software in the cockpit and fly it at any stage of development from the first day to the last and expect it to operate without question. The philosophy and the design behind these research displays was just too mind-boggling to have "bugs"on top of that.

In woodworking I strive for a similar approach. There is a cascade of implications to this. My notion is that I start with boards that are "jewels," for example. This means my workbench has to be free from knots and bumps to avoid embossing or scratching the boards during construction so they require very little finishing at the end (not always ; depends on the project ). I work with precision. I try to perform operations only once ( tenons and mortises don't need a lot of paring ). When something is new to me I make a scale model or practice, say, one corner of a box which I then discard.

Having said all that, I do pick my battles. I don't over-engineer things that don't need it. I don't waste precision ( my precious time ) unless it's for the sake of looking pretty or satisfying somebody who doesn't know any better ( it was the same with management as an engineer ). Leaving things unfinished or rough, though, is a sort of iconoclasty, which, really, is a sort of arrogance. Plenty of tasty riddles in all this.

I hope this is an answer to the question you were asking. As you can tell, I am very fond of the subject and very happy with the success it's afforded me.

[Carl Beckett]

I just throw out the 'Wabi-Sabi' term every time someone notices that deep router gouge that transcends directly across the middle of the table top......

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi


yep, I am a Master at the school of Wabi-Sabi..... :)

[John TenEyck]

Like many others, I've never built a perfect project, but I've built quite a few that I'm very proud of and never grow tired of looking at. A combination of good design and clean execution during the build process gives a sense of deep satisfaction. The ones that don't quite look right on paper, look even worse after completion and I brood about them for a long time. Same with mistakes during the build and especially the finishing process. I am rarely satisfied, but I don't find that unhealthy. Too many people accept "good enough" in all things; I'm not one of them in most anything. I haven't reached the point yet where my skills have peaked; I'm still learning and trying to make each piece better, cleaner, crisper, simpler, more complex - whatever is required to achieve the look.

A few years ago I was installing a curved balcony balustrade which I had designed and fabricated for a new house build. One day when I was about 2/3's done the owner's father comes in to see how the house is coming along. There were at least 4 other tradesmen there at the same time, all within earshot. This guy's father looks at my work for at least 10 minutes, walking around and inspecting it from a distance, up close, from all angles. The other tradesmen start to notice how carefully he's looking at it. I didn't say a word, just kept working. After another 5 or 10 minutes he says to me, loudly enough that everyone can hear, "Sir, you are an artist.". I'll never forget how good that made me feel.

John

[Chris Padilla]

Wow. I'm not looking forward to when I finally mess up up a project. So far, they've all been flawless and perfect.

...then I woke up....

[Ellery Becnel]

"Flawless", "Perfection". Two things I always want to accomplish. Chances are I will never master it. Always doing my best
keeps me striving to get there. Always learning from others, and from common mistakes helps to improve my skills. When I
hear from family and friends that something I have created looks great or beautiful, I am humbled. It makes my effort worth
it. It makes me want to do better work. Not for acknowledgement, for self satisfaction.

Ellery Becnel

[Jeremy Hamaker]

Everything to me is like a balloon. If you squeeze it too hard in one area, it bulges out in another. I aim for balance.
I figure I'll get some features that are "best-possible" and the rest will be "good enough". Sometimes it's the appearance that has to be in the 'best-possible' category... Like an artistic bowl or box or shelf or whatever. Sometimes it's the sturdiness that has to be the "best-possible". As others have mentioned, I don't believe in perfect so don't try for that. In some areas I'm capable of delivering "flawless" as my best-possible. And if that area is one of the ones that needs to be "best-possible" in my project, then the project is not done until that area is "flawless". But, the whole thing will never be perfect...

[Erik Christensen]

I have yet to build anything that is even close to my own sense of perfection - but for the most part I have fun anyway and those I give things to that do not have my skewed sense of acceptable quality tell me they like it (it could go into the fireplace as soon as I leave). What i have learned over the last year or so is how to logically build projects in stages, check my work and adjust the plans for downstream parts based on the deviations of parts already produced. So I have plans for a complete cabinet set, I can buy sheet goods & hardwood off my build list but I don't even think of cutting door/drawer parts until the cases are built & finished. Yah I know this base cabinet was 'supposed' to be 24" wide, but guess what it came out at 23 13/16" - big deal - I have yet to cut drawer stock so I just adjust those plans as necessary. NOT like my auto & metalworking days where it was "get it all together - then assemble".

One of my latest projects was a mobile kitchen prep station with and end grain top. Case & top built, got the drawers built but discovered that when i decided to upgrade to heavy duty undermount slides they required more space behind the drawer and I could not get the drawer inside the cabinet far enough to make it an inset drawer front. OOPS. I had glued up the door front stock slightly oversize and had not cut it to width nor length so it was "I guess this sucker's going to be partial overlay then". Wife loves it and thinks it's perfect - I KNOW it should have been inset but lesson learned to check plans for any impact of hardware changes.

I am amused that the WW articles I read most carefully these days are on how to fix mistakes because that skill has made the biggest improvement in my final build quality. Unless you work in a production commercial operation everything you do is one-off & being human says that is going to have an error rate. Not getting pissed (speaking as a reformed long term tool thrower), figuring out how to adapt to the 'new' design, remembering the mistake for the next time and taking it with a bit of humor seems to turn out the best stuff for me.

[Alan Lightstone]

At work I need to bat 1.000, as patients' lives are at stake.

Doing woodworking, I get to relax. Yes I refinished the last table top I made 12 times until I was happy with the finish. Was it perfect after the 12th time? No. But it was awfully nice.

This is supposed to be an enjoyable hobby. I try to keep it that way. Which means, close enough.

[Mark Woodmark]

The difference between the pros and the amateurs, is that the pros know how to fix their mistakes so no one will see them......Nothing is perfect

[johnny means]

Flawless and perfection are different animals, IMO. If i cut a round tabletop with a router and trammel without gouging it, I might not consider it flawed, though we all know it is not going to be a perfect circle in the mathematical sense. Can I build and finish a project from start to finish within a given set of parameters and without any mistakes? Yes. One might consider this flawless, but I always think I couldbhave done it easier, cheaper, or more efficiently. So while the product may appear flawless, the process is always flawed.

[Joe Hillmann]

For my own stuff good enough is good enough. And when it come to making items for sale I have found that customers are only interested in prefect until they hear the price then magically good enough becomes good enough. With that said I also have customers who want rustic and are unable to tell the difference between rustic that is assembled with tight strong joints that will last and rustic that is slapped together and will fall apart before they get it home.

So far in five years I have only had one customer on one project who was willing to pay for as close to perfect as I was willing to get it.

[Kevin Bourque]

My mistakes look so egregious to me, but most others can't see them, or don't think it's a big deal, even when I point them out.

[John Piwaron]

I am amused that the WW articles I read are on how to fix mistakes. That skill has made the biggest improvement in my final build quality. Figuring out how to adapt to the 'new' design, remembering the mistake for the next time and taking it with a bit of humor seems to turn out the best stuff for me.

Actually, I'm just completing a table that's supposed to be just like one I made a couple of years ago. But it's not identical, it's better. I remembered how it went the first time. And applied the lessons learned then and on projects in between. The new one may look the same but it's really quite a lot better. I'm a hobby guy and my own worst critic.

[Shawn Pixley]

"Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it" - Salvador Dali

[Troy Turner]

When I started, I wouldn't notice my mistakes till I glued it up and realized it didn't fit. Now I've learned to dry fit stuff first :D There's alot of times though, something is still off. I blame the tools and sometimes get away with buying a new something or another...

When I'm done and bring it in, everyone loves it. They can't find a flaw with it even though I know there are always a couple or so. If it's major, I may have to remake a part or redesign to hide it or actually accent it a bit.

I used to get discouraged and frustrated, but now I just step back, figure out what I did wrong, make a mental note and press on with the correction or a whole new project :)

[John Piwaron]

Great discussion. I'm learning from it. What that learning may be - ? :)

It helps clarify a few points for me. "Perfection" may not be my goal after all. Perhaps the word I want to use could have a definition of "the error free execution of the plan as originally designed." Which, it would seem, leaves plenty of room to fall well short of "perfect".

When errors happen, I try to learn from them. What happened? Why did it happen? How did it happen? What can I do to not repeat that going forward? Can I fix the error? All of that describes more than a craftsmanship problem, it also includes design.

Thinking back, way back, the very first error I made wasn't about craftsmanship it was design. I still have and use that project but it's design is crazy wrong. It's wildly out of proportion and the finish is completely wrong for the materials used to make it. But I learned from it. I also ought to move it's replacement up the priority ladder. :)

[Brian Kincaid]

I once made a set of cabinet doors that I felt were perfect. Every measurement worked, stock was square and profiles met, etc. The finish looked stellar. Then when I installed them on the cabinet I realized I had made them 1 1/2" too wide.

-Brian

[Andrew Joiner]

Great discussion. I'm learning from it. What that learning may be - ? :)

It helps clarify a few points for me. "Perfection" may not be my goal after all. Perhaps the word I want to use could have a definition of "the error free execution of the plan as originally designed." Which, it would seem, leaves plenty of room to fall well short of "perfect".

When errors happen, I try to learn from them. What happened? Why did it happen? How did it happen? What can I do to not repeat that going forward? Can I fix the error? All of that describes more than a craftsmanship problem, it also includes design.

Thinking back, way back, the very first error I made wasn't about craftsmanship it was design. I still have and use that project but it's design is crazy wrong. It's wildly out of proportion and the finish is completely wrong for the materials used to make it. But I learned from it. I also ought to move it's replacement up the priority ladder. :)

It's a great thread,thanks for doing it John.

Perfection and flaws often depends on one's attitude . I love woodworking and designing furniture. I have loved it since I was kid. It gives me an outlet to seek perfection in an imperfect world. I'm happy never actually achieving perfection, but getting close is fun.

A co-worker in the shop I worked in 40 years ago would throw his hammer and yell often as he worked. I think he wasn't happy with how close to perfect his work was.

[Gordon Eyre]

What bugs me is to be working from a set of plans only to find that the plan had a mistake which I failed to notice until I had already made the part. I still have several such pieces sitting around my shop from such mistakes.

[Steve Baumgartner]

I make lots of mistakes. Initially I get very angry with myself, but when I calm down I always find a fix. The most difficult decision is between making a defective part over again versus hiding or tolerating the flaw. Sometimes it is a lot faster just to throw it away and start over.

In a workshop at North Bennet Street School, we were taught that there are no mistakes, just "design opportunities". Behind the humor is a deep truth: a piece was supposed to be a particular way only because a design said so. Very rarely was there some absolute "rightness" behind the original design, merely a choice. Other choices are just as valid. Nobody but the original designer will know the difference between his choice and yours.

I once made a couple of steamship deck chairs to Norm Abram's plans from New Yankee Workshop. Only after assembling the seats did I discover that the plans had the slats drawn backward, so that the deepest part of the curve was at the wrong place (afterwards they added an erratum sheet, but it is easy to miss). I found that I could turn the entire assembly front for back and still make the chair, the only penalty being a rounded off portion that should have been square. To this day, my family (who are the only ones who have ever been aware of the event) refer to that "feature" as "Normie's Notch".

Steve

[Russell Sansom]

Great thread.
I used to make harpsichords for musicians. My first serious harpsichord was for Lone Mountain College in San Francisco. The head of the music department innaugurated it with a well-publicized concert. There was a full house. After the concert the professor walked up to me and hissed, "The middle c-sharp stuck through the ENTIRE CONCERT!." Poor guy had to work around an intermittent note for an hour and fifteen minutes!
I felt horrible. After an hour of inventing excuses, I came to the reality that my final product had not been good enough. This shaped my behavior for a long time. Including my years of making cockpit displays for research aircraft...a "product" which put similar demands for perfection on its creator.

Having faced these demands, I have practiced finding perfection more often than many woodworkers. I think about heart surgeons, plastic surgeons, and, really, commercial cabinet makers. They all have been forced to find a certain level of quality that might not be common for the everyday "hobbyist." But it IS there. An interesting analog is working without any injuries of any kind ... no nicks, no splinters, no bruises. I have to change gears and work in a different mind space to achieve this. But, with an extra effort and the sacrifice of significant time and effort, it can be achieved. As I said earlier, I always choose my battles. Sometimes I just want to bang something out.
Russ

[Lornie McCullough]

Great thread.
An interesting analog is working without any injuries of any kind ... no nicks, no splinters, no bruises. I have to change gears and work in a different mind space to achieve this. But, with an extra effort and the sacrifice of significant time and effort, it can be achieved. As I said earlier, I always choose my battles. Sometimes I just want to bang something out.
Russ

I had been reading this thread, and thinking to myself that I don't worry about perfection too much until I got to this sentence.......

I too seek the perfection of no injuries of any kind. Thank you Russell for saying it out loud.

Lornie

[Richard Wagner]

If I ever completed what I thought was a flawless project I what have to quit wood working. Doing still another would do nothing but destroy the euphoria. No, I have never had and don't expect I ever will have a flawless project.

[Val Kosmider]

There is a good article on 'mistakes' in the latest edition of FWW:

We ALL Make mistakes. Phew...i thought it was only me.

There are a LOT of clever people out there who have come up with some pretty ingenious ways of correcting errors.

Worth a read.