Insights

#147: Go Deep to Survive the Power of a Fool

I grew up in a woodwork hobby shop, surrounded by power tools, wood and sawdust. I learned wonderful woodworking skills, such as how not to lose a finger, hand or arm.

Years later, a super confident subordinate told me about his new table saw. Shocked at how he was using it, I told him it was extremely dangerous. No, he said, that’s in the manual. Read it again, I insisted, I need you with both your hands. The next day he apologized.

I see many examples of superficial reading and shallow thinking. We have spawned a generation too confident to appreciate the depths of experience. Doting you-can-do-it parents and suspect information at their smart-phoned-fingertips trick them into acting the expert and feeling invulnerable.

I have all my fingers and my job only because my deep understanding of the power of tools stopped me developing the power of a fool.


Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.