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@ zach
2023-06-05 16:54:55Working in custom cabinet manufacturing is a challenging, fun, mentally demanding, frustrating, beautiful, and painful experience, all at once, each and every day. This might sound a bit dramatic, but I can't help my hyperbolic nature.
From start to finish, you spend months thinking about the project, coordinating the materials, and assembling it - first in your head, then IRL, in what might be called "woodspace." It requires a thousand small details coming together to create the big picture, much like Pointillism, or so I like to pretend.
As my colleague often says, "Details matter." When you make the details your life, poring over specs for hours, planning and designing better systems to meet project goals, you may still find that mistakes happen. Correction, you will find that mistakes happen. No plan is perfect, things can go wrong, and people are human. You might find yourself questioning why certain events occurred, shouting at the world, and struggling to understand the mistakes that have transpired.
Questions like "Why did we do it like that when the specs showed something else?" "Why didn't the paint cure correctly?" "Why did this material warp?" and "Why didn't we catch this in the shop?" often arise.
Simon Sinek suggested to "start with why," which is a great place to begin. However, it's essential not to stop at why, or get caught in a cycle where every single event invites a deep examination into the very meaning of life.
There is an equation in manufacturing where the farther you move along the "why" axis, the more the weight of the variable X compounds, bearing down on you so heavily that you feel immobilized. At this point, you're spent - done, fried, finished.
Instead of being capable of clear thinking that leads to action, you're caught in analysis paralysis. I speak from experience when I say: you don't want to go there. Do your best to stay above the fray.
In other words, don't expend your rigorous reasoning on trivial pursuits. Conserve your energy for the issues that truly demand it. Start with why, ponder it for a second, then put your head down and keep moving forward.