CadeJohnson's recent activity
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Comment on Do you carry a knife with with you? If so, what type/company? in ~hobbies
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Comment on What’s something you think more people should know about? in ~talk
CadeJohnson LinkMore people should understand the modern business concept of quality. Although it is something that becomes somewhat ingrained into people in a wide range of businesses in industrialized nations,...More people should understand the modern business concept of quality. Although it is something that becomes somewhat ingrained into people in a wide range of businesses in industrialized nations, for those that are not indoctrinated I think they're missing a valuable conceptual framework for day-to-day living.
I have been out of the working world for 20 years - happily retired - but thinking about quality still permeates my day-to-day thoughts. Quality means "meeting or exceeding customer expectations" and one can define "customer" in very broad terms (i.e. my wife is my customer when I wash the dishes). When I visit a store in Latin America, where the concept of quality has not penetrated to the local business level as yet, I think about what I should realistically expect and why the experience here is so different than in the "real world".
Expectation is at the heart of quality, and it is also at the heart of the 'happiness equation' from economics: happiness = reality - expectation, which is to say you are happy when reality exceeds your expectations. This leads to the life-altering conclusion that you have ultimate control over your own happiness! All you have to do is truly lower your expectations a little! I have found this to be particularly true when dealing with neighbors. We all think neighbors should be sensible and respectful like ourselves, but sometimes they are not. But if we encounter neighbors with the attitude that we WILL love them, despite their inevitable failings; then we can be a lot happier ourselves because of this little adjustment in our own expectations. By expecting a little less, the quality of our neighbors has increased dramatically!
Since taking up farming in the Dominican Republic, I have almost obligatorily begun to carry a knife. EVERYBODY in the countryside seems to carry one and they are used for an amazing range of work. Actually they are machetes, usually with a leather scabbard; the blade is about two feet long. On my scabbard is a short piece of 1/2-inch PVC pipe in which I can hang a triangular fine file for keeping the blade razor sharp. I trim banana leaves (every day, every stalk has a new leaf and an old one that is starting to wither and become a route for vines to climb the stalk) and generally hack back the constant explosion of tropical vegetation. But also I can dig with it, peel an orange or avocado for a mid-morning snack, plane and scrape wood to a smoother-than-sanded finish, and cut fence posts. With the back edge of the blade I can hammer fence-wire staples or drive a second machete like a wedge to split wood. After carrying it on my belt daily for almost a decade, I really feel naked without it.
I put my belt on my trousers starting with the left front loop, so I tend to put the machete on my right hip. The locals say this is all backwards, the machete should be on the left hip so the belt should go the other way, and they have good reason. On the right, the sharp edge of the blade is toward the right arm, and the blade is most easily drawn with the left hand. If it is drawn with the right hand, then it must be re-grasped to hold for cutting. But one grows accustomed.