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Old 06-05-2014, 16:37   #406
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I don't know if anyone submitted this before. I'm too lazy to search. It came back to mind lately because of certain circumstances, but it's always been one of my favorites. Especially apropos given this crowd.

"everything in excess... Moderation is for monks"
Robert A. Heinlein.
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Old 06-05-2014, 17:18   #407
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Re: What is Your Favorite Quote?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tantalus View Post
I don't know if anyone submitted this before. I'm too lazy to search. It came back to mind lately because of certain circumstances, but it's always been one of my favorites. Especially apropos given this crowd.

"everything in excess... Moderation is for monks"
Robert A. Heinlein.
And we have a nation who don't "do" irony,

dedicating themselves to his ironic proposition

(which has elsewhere been called the "Liberace principle"),

and yet, despite how convincingly that nation has demonstrated it to be a generally Bad Idea, the rest of the world insist on trampling each other in the queue to imitate them ....

sigh ...
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Old 06-05-2014, 17:21   #408
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Re: What is Your Favorite Quote?

And another thing I have to thank you for, Tantalus: you jogged my memory about a quote I was trying to recollect for another discussion on this forum, where I was arguing it was risky for someone having a yacht built delegating all important decisions to individual specialists: you reminded my who the writer was, enabling me to find the quote:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly.

Specialization is for insects.

-Robert A. Heinlein
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Old 06-05-2014, 19:08   #409
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Re: What is Your Favorite Quote?

That makes you think of the saying, "Jack of all trades Master of none." An idea I have not wanted to live up to.
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Old 06-05-2014, 19:46   #410
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Re: What is Your Favorite Quote?

Every boat doing distance sailing needs at least one jack of all trades, I reckon.

And the poor bugger will work his or her tits off.

Masters of one trade are about as useful as flippers on a horse,

IME, when the nearest land is straight down.
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Old 06-05-2014, 20:01   #411
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Re: What is Your Favorite Quote?

God save me from "sailors" who "know" about everything.
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Old 06-05-2014, 20:03   #412
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Re: What is Your Favorite Quote?

Beats the ones who know about nothing (or nothing useful)

Not much call for telephone sanitisers, for instance
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Old 06-05-2014, 20:12   #413
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Re: What is Your Favorite Quote?

I'd rather have one good Rainman.

Someone who knows something cold. Takes a look at the sun, over the side, and says "we're further north than the electronics say we are. " and is right.

Or someone who touches the screen three times, and the plotter works again.

Or someone who "throws" perfect cleat hitches without bending over.

Someone with a skill. Or knowledge, real knowledge. Someone who looks at a red, hard, swollen cut and says "that's not an infection". And is right.

It's that "and is right" part that's hard to come by. Because you don't get it from jacks of all trades. They're only right on a good day, with things that happen to fit their experience. And since their experience is limited, well, good days don't happen that often. I'd rather have someone who can look at a level and tell when it's wrong. Someone who knows when a line is wearing because he feels it when it runs through his hands. Without looking. Someone who knows what's wrong with the engine by the color of the oil or the sound of the gears.

Someone with skill.
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Old 06-05-2014, 20:28   #414
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Re: What is Your Favorite Quote?

My take is that the search for perfection is a hiding to nowhere, once you're far from the sources of resources.

I would rather sail with someone who could cobble together something which is good enough to struggle on, in spite of most problems, than someone who could achieve a perfect repair if only we had the tools and materials needed.

Being more in the second camp myself, I enjoy sailing with farmers and other resourceful people, because the only resources, once you're far from land, are the limited ones you brung.

Possibly the most resourceful people of all are delivery skippers, of 'ordinary' boats.

And resourceful people are not only full of internal resources, but they make the best uses of the external resources which come to hand

-- which, on deliveries, are often depressingly crappy - just ask our boatie. And if you happen to read this: would you consider yourself an expert in any particular field?

But it's not just deliveries (like Be Good Too) , or cruises (Revel Heart springs to mind - they probably didn't need a pediatrician, who would have needed the 'machine which goes "ping!"', so much as a country doctor -even a vet, at a pinch. They're used to fragile patients with limited language skills...)

The best offshore racing sailor my country has produced was not, by his own free admission, the best at any single role, but there was no role he couldn't fill competently, and he was a great judge and coordinator of those more expert than himself.
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Old 06-05-2014, 20:33   #415
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Re: What is Your Favorite Quote?

As Tantalus was too lazy to thumb back through the variety of famous quotes, I feel much better not doing it...
This quotation was offered to me by a new crew member who had jumped ship for an evening and sailed away with a retired Marine Col. When I asked her what she learned on her brief but no doubt eventful two day absence, she replied,
'...lines are for boats and ropes are for sex'.
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Old 06-05-2014, 20:40   #416
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Re: What is Your Favorite Quote?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jammer Six View Post
I'd rather have one good Rainman.

Someone who knows something cold. Takes a look at the sun, over the side, and says "we're further north than the electronics say we are. " and is right.

Or someone who touches the screen three times, and the plotter works again.

Or someone who "throws" perfect cleat hitches without bending over.

Someone with a skill. Or knowledge, real knowledge. Someone who looks at a red, hard, swollen cut and says "that's not an infection". And is right.

It's that "and is right" part that's hard to come by. Because you don't get it from jacks of all trades. They're only right on a good day, with things that happen to fit their experience. And since their experience is limited, well, good days don't happen that often. I'd rather have someone who can look at a level and tell when it's wrong. Someone who knows when a line is wearing because he feels it when it runs through his hands. Without looking. Someone who knows what's wrong with the engine by the color of the oil or the sound of the gears.

Someone with skill.
Sometimes intuition is worth its weight in gold. Kinda like the saying.... 'I'd rather be lucky than smart.'
As a 'dumb' delivery skipper', I was always careful to surround myself with a crew that was not only lucky but smarter than me and had a skill set completely different than mine. Learned a lot that way!! (But not as much as boatman61)... cheers, Phil
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Old 06-05-2014, 21:03   #417
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Re: What is Your Favorite Quote?

This is a great thread folks. As a recent transplant to La Paz, I went back and re-read the book by John Steinbeck, "Log from the Sea of Cortez". This passage says it all for me.

"We had never seen a town which even looked like La Paz, and yet coming to it was like returning rather than visiting. Some quality there is in the whole Gulf that trips a trigger of recognition so that in fantastic and exotic scenery one finds oneself nodding and saying inwardly, "Yes, I know."

John Steinbeck, The Log From The Sea of Cortez, 1941.

Cheers, Bill
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Old 07-05-2014, 01:12   #418
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Re: What is Your Favorite Quote?

"The only human activity with a 100% mortality rate is being born"

coined by me
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Old 07-05-2014, 01:14   #419
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Re: What is Your Favorite Quote?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Capt Phil View Post
Sometimes intuition is worth its weight in gold. Kinda like the saying.... 'I'd rather be lucky than smart.'
As a 'dumb' delivery skipper', I was always careful to surround myself with a crew that was not only lucky but smarter than me and had a skill set completely different than mine. Learned a lot that way!! (But not as much as boatman61)... cheers, Phil
This is exactly what a really good leader does, recognizes his (her) own shortcomings and surrounds himself with people exhibiting those talents as strengths.

Basic management theory. It is the same logic that boat skippers should apply.
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Old 07-05-2014, 01:26   #420
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Re: What is Your Favorite Quote?

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This is exactly what a really good leader does, recognizes his (her) own shortcomings and surrounds himself with people exhibiting those talents as strengths.

Basic management theory. It is the same logic that boat skippers should apply.

Ahem .... (tentative cough) ... where does that leave single-handers?
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