May 26, 2011

A Potential for Disaster

I want to do things correctly like a responsible, mature person. But sometimes I'm too independent for this.

When other people are working with me I err on the side of doing things right. I am the stickler who insists on double-checking everything. Who reads Monopoly rules front to back and upside-down before rolling the dice. I believe that "when in doubt, Google it" is a great motto to live by if you don't want to look stupid.

But taken too far, it can have some negative results:

Using this method, you can become an irritating know-it-all. Simply don't believe anything anyone tells you! Instead, take a lesson from academia and demand multiple sources to verify all instructions or so-called "facts!" Rejoice in your knowledge as it grows each time you snub your peers!

As an added bonus, when your hard work pays off and you find out someone else screwed up, you get to do this.

You're doing it wrong!!!

These tendencies vaporize if I work alone. This is not because I don't have other people to correct. Instead, it happens because no one else is around to potentially correct me. I am liberated! Uncontrolled! Uninhibited! I can mess up everything and no one would be the wiser!

Reveling in this potential for disaster, I like to show off to myself. I resolve to figure things out on my own WITHOUT help. "It can't be that hard," I say. For me it's a challenge — a mind game to rival a 6×6 Rubik's cube — to see how far I can get before reading instructions.

Sometimes things work out well. I just jump in and try to figure things out as I go. Occasionally the aftermath of screwing up even gives me a burst of genius. Best of all, when I do figure something out on my own I get an inflating feeling of self-satisfied grandeur! It's a wonderful accomplishment.

On the other hand, when things don't work out...


...I usually don't tell anyone.

5 comments:

  1. Awesome Ellen. I love the stove picture. Now... about the other pictures I know you have ready to post and haven't yet... I'm waiting, but only cause your making me. I'm impatient. Post MORE!!!

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  2. The stove picture reminds me of an incident I had with the microwave a little while ago...

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  3. Microwaves are really good at that, huh? =P

    I once had a neighbour who enjoyed being like an aunt/grandma to all the kids on our street. We all called her Charlie, and she would give out freezies all the time during summer.

    Everyone knows that freezies taste better half-melted, so one day a girl named Lauren had a stroke of genius and decided she would use Charlie's microwave to warm up her freezie...

    Charlie was not impressed; suffice it to say that Lauren spent the rest of the afternoon scrubbing out the microwave.

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  4. Everyone's microwave stories are bringing back memories of third grade, a microwave, and a bag of marshmallows... *winces*

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  5. Oh geezz, marshmallows... I goobed up the inside of my parents' microwave with tons of marshmallow today. =[

    I should write about the treats I was making! =D

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