No, it’s because lukeprog did what seems like common sense: he bought a copy of Nonprofits for Dummies and did what it recommends.
There’s a similar principle that I use sometimes when solving physics problems, and when building anything electronic. It’s called “Do it the Right Way.”
Most of the time, I take shortcuts. I try things that seem interesting. I want to rely on myself rather than on a manual. I don’t want to make a list of things to do, but instead want to do things as I think of them.
This is usually fine—it’s certainly fast when it works, and it’s usually easy to check my answers. But as I was practicing physics problems with a friend, I realized that he was terrible at doing things my way. Instead, he did things the right way. He “used the manual.” Made a mental list. Followed the list. Every time he made a suggestion, it was always the Right Way to do things.
With physics, these two approaches aren’t all that far apart in terms of usefulness—though it’s good to be able to do both. But if you want to do carpentry or build electronics, you have to be able to do things the Right Way.
To add to that, if you want to Do Things The Right Way, don’t use a mental list, use a physical list. Using a checklist is one of the absolute best improvements you can make in terms of payoff per unit of effort. The famous example is Gawande, who tested using a “safe surgery” checklist for surgeons, which resulted in a 36% reduction in complications and a 47% fall in deaths.
There’s a similar principle that I use sometimes when solving physics problems, and when building anything electronic. It’s called “Do it the Right Way.”
Most of the time, I take shortcuts. I try things that seem interesting. I want to rely on myself rather than on a manual. I don’t want to make a list of things to do, but instead want to do things as I think of them.
This is usually fine—it’s certainly fast when it works, and it’s usually easy to check my answers. But as I was practicing physics problems with a friend, I realized that he was terrible at doing things my way. Instead, he did things the right way. He “used the manual.” Made a mental list. Followed the list. Every time he made a suggestion, it was always the Right Way to do things.
With physics, these two approaches aren’t all that far apart in terms of usefulness—though it’s good to be able to do both. But if you want to do carpentry or build electronics, you have to be able to do things the Right Way.
To add to that, if you want to Do Things The Right Way, don’t use a mental list, use a physical list. Using a checklist is one of the absolute best improvements you can make in terms of payoff per unit of effort. The famous example is Gawande, who tested using a “safe surgery” checklist for surgeons, which resulted in a 36% reduction in complications and a 47% fall in deaths.