There’s Nothing More Time Consuming Than Ignorance

“Takes Me Back to BEE in the Navy…”?That refers to the Basic Electricity and Electronics Naval courses and was a response written by Michael Malamphy, CTS, to a post I wrote on Ohm’s Law some time ago.?

Basics.?That got me thinking about a phase I’ve often said, “There’s nothing more time consuming than ignorance.”?

I know that wording can be provoking but let’s properly define “ignorance”.?My old Webster’s New World Dictionary of the American Language says, 1. lacking knowledge or experience 2. caused by or showing lack of knowledge 3. unaware.

It’s a phrase I don’t throw around casually because the word, ignorant, has been misused and therefore, can be misinterpreted.?There’s nothing demeaning when properly defined, used and in proper context.?In simpler terms, it just means you don’t know something.?And being in that position of not knowing can have repercussions in time, effort and money spent.

Through the years, I’ve personally had to work through many instances of ignorance.?Home projects, vehicle repairs, changing CAD programs and of course, designing and troubleshooting AV systems.?I have discovered that I can successfully starve as a mechanic, electrician, plumber and carpenter even though I have accumulated the tools necessary to accomplish many of the tasks required of these trades.?What’s lacking? ?The knowledge and the experience that comes with performing these skills on a daily basis.?What gets me through these jobs when I have to do them??A proper foundational understanding of cars and things like electricity, soldering and construction (and sometimes a generous dose of YouTube).?I can do these things successfully but because I’m not doing it every day, it takes me longer.?Sometimes it’s just trial and error with an emphasis on error – especially when doing something for the first time.

My hoodie from Faber College says, “Knowledge is Good”.?Well, okay, but knowledge without understanding has limitations.?Understanding with knowledge can be limitless.?The support structure for this is a true and proper grasp of the basics.?It also helps you to weed out fact from fiction when you take a course, look at a marketing brochure or when those with less understanding or experience try and persuade you with information that is less than accurate and more akin to snake oil.

I coached girls’ fastpitch softball for years even though I didn’t play organized ball as a kid.?That may or may not have put me at a disadvantage because there wasn’t anything I needed to unlearn from questionable examples.?If you know me, you know I would have researched and bought books and videos on the subject.?I also took coaching clinics and became certified.?It was at one of those coaching clinics that I saw the original 7-volume softball instructional DVD series with Mike Candrea.?Besides his other accomplishments, Candrea coached the women’s softball team to Olympic Gold in 2004 and Silver in 2008.?(It brings up another one of my mantras: “Hang around the smart people.”)?It was stretch at the time financially but I bought it and the girls that I coached benefited greatly from what I learned and applied in my coaching.?I had to work myself out of a place of ignorance so that others could benefit.?How much different might those teams have looked and how much more time would I have spent had I not studied the basics from one of the greats.?Candrea’s videos helped to greatly shorten my learning curve and provided me with the foundation I needed in teaching softball to the girls.

Here’s the other lesson: I wanted to make sure the girls learned and applied the basics on the field so that they were never hindered in life because they lacked the foundation skills needed to hit, field grounders or flys, catch, pitch, run the bases, slide and play any position on the field as needed.?I never wanted them to hindered by ignorance.?They could build on those learned skills and go as far as they wished to go.?Learning is a life skill and the better the foundation, the better the structure.

Designing, installing and commissioning an AV system is no different. Get the foundations correct and you can go anywhere. Further, and more importantly, are the people that can be the recipients of your learning. Build into them. I'm not a golf guy but I watched an interview with Jack Nicklaus and he was talking about his coach: “He knew the golf swing probably as well as any instructor ever has. But I think his greatest gift to his students was his belief in them and his ability to get them to believe in themselves. He wanted you not only to be skilled technically, but also to be so confident of your skills that you could identify and fix your own swing flaws even in the heat of battle, even without him there by your side. In other words, Jack Grout worked to be dispensable. He wanted his students to be able to function at the highest level without him.”

In other words, the best thing you can do for others is to pass on your learning and work yourself out of a job.

I imagine my girls' kids growing up and discovering that mom knows her way around a diamond – and not the kind on her finger.

#exertisalmo #proav #avtweeps

P.S. I look back at this photo now and they look more like the Bad News Bears than a competent softball team. Don't let the photo fool you. They were all business on the field. Watching these girls play was one of the highlights of my life.