Lifelong Habits

[Lee Schierer]

When I was in cub scouts, I won a pocket knife for selling them most of some product that we sold for fund raising. After receiving the knife at a later meeting the leader taught me how to sharpen my knife. ( No this is not a sharpening thread ) He taught me that a sharp knife is much safer than a dull one. I still carry a pocket knife, not the one I won, nearly every day and is is kept sharp.

In the Naval Academy a leadership professor taught me about delegating work to another person, that I should explain the task to the best of my ability, emphasizing the desired end result and due date. Then when the task is completed, don't look closely at how it was accomplished, but to pay close attention to how well it meets the desired results. Just because it wasn't done the way I would have done the task does not make it wrong.

He also taught me to praise in public and reprimand in private and to praise more often than criticize.

[Carlos Alvarez]

Then when the task is completed, don't look closely at how it was accomplished, but to pay close attention to how well it meets the desired results. Just because it wasn't done the way I would have done the task does not make it wrong.

I've never really thought about it exactly that way, but oh, yes, so much this times 100. I had so many issues in school with teachers who wanted the answers derived using THEIR methods, or whatever methods were deemed by the books to be the One True Answer. I have always been able to do math in my head using methods similar to common core; it's just instinctual. But they wanted me to show my work, which was hard to do to begin with since it was graphical in my head, not numeric. And then would say I did it wrong, even though my answer was correct. Silly. It's a big reason why I'm a high school dropout. Today, I use my methods in my head, not theirs.

[Lee Schierer]

Step into that teachers shoes for just a moment. Without you writing down how you got the answer, how would she know you didn't peek at someone else's paper?

Learning is class is different than delegating. When you delegate, you are somewhat confident that the task is within the capabilities of the person you are asking to do it. For example when changing a tire on a car, I might believe that the best way would be to loosen all the lug nuts before I jack the car up, then finish jacking, remove the lug nuts carefully place them in the hub cap, remove the wheel and reverse the procedure to put the spare on. If I gave the task to you you might alter one or more steps to the procedure but still end up with the spare tire on the car. That is the desired result so that is what a leader must look at not how it came to be there. In a learning situation it is always best to learn how from the instructor before attempting to do it your own way so that you don't create problems due to inexperience.

Here is a test a teacher gave in a class I was in once:

* Name ____________________________ Score ______

Follow Directions

1. Read everything carefully before doing anything.
2. Put your name in the upper right-hand corner of this page.
3. Circle the word NAME in sentence two.
4. Draw five small squares in the upper left-hand corner.
5. Put an “X” in each square.
6. Put a circle around each square.
7. Sign your name under the title of this paper.
8. After the title write, “yes, yes, yes.”
9. Put a circle completely around sentence number seven.
10. Put an “X” in the lower left corner of this paper.
11. Draw a triangle around the “X” you just put down.
12. On the back of this paper, multiply 703 by 66.
13. Draw a rectangle around the word “corner” in sentence four.
14. Loudly call out your first name when you get this far along.
15. If you have followed directions carefully to this point, call out, “I have.”
16. On the reverse side of this paper, add 8950 and 9305.
17. Put a circle around your answer and put a square around the circle.
18. Punch three small holes in the top of this paper with your pencil point.
19. If you are the first person to reach this point, LOUDLY, call out, I AM THE FIRST PERSON TO REACH THIS POINT, AND I AM THE LEADER IN FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS.”
20. Underline all even numbers on the left side of this paper.
21. Loudly call out, “I AM NEARLY FINISHED. I HAVE FOLLOWED DIRECTIONS.”
22. Now that you have finished reading everything, do sentences 1 and 2! Keep busy so that others will continue to read without disturbance from you. Do not make any sign to give a clue to your having completed the assigned task.

[Carlos Alvarez]

Step into that teachers shoes for just a moment. Without you writing down how you got the answer, how would she know you didn't peek at someone else's paper?

First off that's irrelevant. Teaching people to succeed in life shouldn't be bound by your own challenges. But the answer is because several teachers saw me do it, and knew I could. Some chose to then allow it, and some chose to be obstinate and say it had to be their way. Even if I wrote it down, it was wrong because it was not THEIR WAY. We obviously ask our people to document what they have done, but not how they did it or why, unless it's relevant to future work or troubleshooting. Remember that half of my complaint was that they wouldn't let me show my work done my own way. I excelled in classes where the teacher was concerned about outcome and not process.

Was step 22 supposed to say "do ONLY sentences 1 and 2?" Doesn't make sense otherwise. Well, that whole silliness is nonsense, but even more so.

[Mark Bolton]

These are all funny and I think of this subject on almost a daily basis. I have worked in the construction industry for nearly my entire life. All you hear when you see a mistake is "well thats just the way Ive always done it". To which I reply, why? if its not working? But man oh man. You definitely have them. I have many from working with a dear friend and mentor getting a business off the ground where we saved shipping boxes and packing material. It becomes an obsession to break down a shipping box and flatten it and put it in the stack for future use. I find myself in a bit of a panic attack thinking of lean manufacturing where you have your own branded boxes and throw all the good, usable, incoming boxes and bubble wrap away.

Also remember a young employee who was a computer nut talking about having to overcome the oxford comma and double space after a period in the coding/computer world. Something that was beaten into him as a student simply doesnt apply for so many today.

I have made a career out of eliminating ritual from my life. We all have routines, we put underwear on under our clothes. But ritual becomes one of those Rainman-type-events where you simply can not deviate/grow without stress or meltdown.

My SO is extremely ritual based as is her family. Its a major major issue. I believe in forcing myself to be dynamic. The ritualistic see that as being wreckelss. lol. I strive to be in the happy medium.

[Lee Schierer]

Sometimes the method is what is important not the final answer. Try baking a cake by dumping everything in the cake pan at once and setting the temp anywhere that feels good.

You would be amazed at how many people try to cheat by doing each step instead of what it says to do. Print it out and try it on your friends. It's even funnier if you say they only have 5 minutes to complete the test.

[Carlos Alvarez]

I have made a career out of eliminating ritual from my life. We all have routines, we put underwear on under our clothes. But ritual becomes one of those Rainman-type-events where you simply can not deviate/grow without stress or meltdown.

Man, I like that a lot, well said. I too do things differently all the time just to see if there's a better way, or just experience some change. Ritual is not only boring, but dangerous. Change is good. I guess I have reverse OCD.

[Mark Bolton]

Try baking a cake by dumping everything in the cake pan at once and setting the temp anywhere that feels good

I couldnt agree with you more Lee. Phenomenal example. I love baking. It requires precision and a sense of deliberateness. Its a concept that I use a lot in the lowly construction world. So many people build a shed, or a birdhouse, and then start building their house and want to tamper with the system. They will argue with you endlessly to leave out that stud over there, or why do you need that here, and so on. Its one of those things where you dont start tampering with the "math" until you have a very in-depth understanding of the equation.

I look at it as a perfect example of where so many people confuse routine and ritual. Routine is necessary for all of us to exist. Ritual is detrimental to all of our existence.

[Carlos Alvarez]

The final answer on the cake is the only thing that matters. If you dump everything in and bake at a random temp, and it tastes good and doesn't kill anyone, you succeeded. The process is irrelevant. If it tastes like crap, then you go back to an established set of rules. In either case, how you got to success shouldn't matter to anyone.

[Mark Bolton]

In either case, how you got to success shouldn't matter to anyone.

For many (Im one), and Id guess including many in this forum, it actually does. Its why we use bread board ends, five piece door construction, balance lay ups, and so on. Of course someone can build an odd piece or an odd cake, and share only the result. But when you really understand the formula it can become interesting. Even in chef-ery just seeing the end result gives the experienced observer the answer to the puzzle.

[Carlos Alvarez]

For many (Im one), and Id guess including many in this forum, it actually does. Its why we use bread board ends, five piece door construction, balance lay ups, and so on. Of course someone can build an odd piece or an odd cake, and share only the result. But when you really understand the formula it can become interesting. Even in chef-ery just seeing the end result gives the experienced observer the answer to the puzzle.

Ok, then let me try saying it differently. How you get there has no bearing on the quality or correctness of the result. How you got there is interesting so that others can duplicate it, or further refine it, or just for knowledge and interest. It does not matter in the sense of judging success or a grade, other than cases where someone wastes a huge amount of time/resources getting to something that could be done more easily.

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

This comment sticks out.

I had so many issues in school with teachers who wanted the answers derived using THEIR methods, or whatever methods were deemed by the books to be the One True Answer. I have always been able to do math in my head using methods similar to common core; it's just instinctual. But they wanted me to show my work, which was hard to do to begin with since it was graphical in my head, not numeric. And then would say I did it wrong, even though my answer was correct. Silly. It's a big reason why I'm a high school dropout. Today, I use my methods in my head, not theirs.

Like Lee said, step into the teacher's shoes. Just because you had that answer in your head, it doesn't mean you have all the answers. What happens when you don't have the correct answer? You didn't allow the teacher to show you the foundations of deriving that answer.

I did this when I was in school. My whole life, I have music playing in my head. Any music from symphonies to jazz to hard alternative rock. I never had piano lessons but could watch someone play it once and then play it. (It was a great party trick for my parents visitors who had new instruments I had not seen yet.) My school music teacher wanted me to learn sheet music and once I showed him I could read which note was A vs F, I skipped reading sheet music because I could already play it. My downfall? You can give me sheet music with no name on it and I can't play it because I have no idea how to read the timing of those individual notes. If the sheet music had a name on it and I had already heard it once before, I could play it flawlessly and just skim the notes.

Charlie,
The fabulous part about your story was that you chose to turn a negative incident into a positive habit. You could have easily repeated that behavior and treated your students and peers with same negativity and closed-mindedness.

[Carlos Alvarez]

You didn't allow the teacher to show you the foundations of deriving that answer.

I'm curious why you assumed that. It's an honest question, not trolling or anything. I said specifically that it applied to multiple teachers, not "a teacher" as you and others said. I didn't say I refused to learn the documented way, but that I didn't normally use it in practice. I said that I had my own method to derive the answer, not that I just happened to know all the answers without a method. It just happened to be MY method, which like I said, now has this "common core" name given to it. I was way too early I guess. I also said that some teachers realized that not all students learn the same way, and were reasonable about it. The primary objection is that forcing me to take tests using their method was counter-productive and nonsensical.

Until fourth grade, I was in advanced programs that didn't just allow thinking on your own, but encouraged it. Then we moved to an area with no such programs and a strong by-the-book attitude. But it did teach me the life-long habit of always questioning everything and all authority, which is a good outcome I guess.

[Mark Bolton]

Charlie, The fabulous part about your story was that you chose to turn a negative incident into a positive habit.

Agreed. What a great story and example of great teaching and interaction.

I was also someone who always felt like I learned my own way and somehow made it through just fine in "alternative" ways. I did realize as I got older (even in my 20's) how big a mistake that was in that had I learned and fully understood the standard/traditional ways, in combination with "my own", I would have been much farther ahead. It was a painful lesson having to acquire all those standards when I was older, and on my own time, and at my own expense, when I had the opportunity to absorb it all for free on schools (and my parents) dime. Major mistake.

It is now one of those "pay attention to what your mother told you" situations with most every employee who has every line in the book, they learn with their hands, they dont learn by reading but rather doing, have all the answers straight out of the gate, blah blah blah. Want to re-invent the wheel when they have never successfully built a single wheel to begin with. It puts me in Charlies spot and I just say well. Ok.. theres the stuff over there, build the wheel. Hours and hours later they come back with tails dragging, ready to do some old school learnin. I was the same way.

Great thread.

[Jim Koepke]

First off that's irrelevant. Teaching people to succeed in life shouldn't be bound by your own challenges. But the answer is because several teachers saw me do it, and knew I could. Some chose to then allow it, and some chose to be obstinate and say it had to be their way.

The problem is schools have a difficult time having a program for people who are more advanced than the grade/class they are in. In school my teachers caused me to become frustrated with math because of their rules of how it was to be done. This led me to avoid taking math classes later in life. Turns out, my maths are pretty good. One of my abilities is being able to multiply 3 and 4 digit numbers in my head.

Standard school programs tend to frustrate those with advanced abilities, herd together the middle of the roaders and do very little for those who struggle.

jtk