In times before electronic management systems cars were simpler and mechanically less intricate – you could repair a car within reason without going to an expensive garage to connect a computer to your engine to diagnose faults.
Driving however could be more difficult – I remember my father teaching me the lost art of how to double declutch, useful before synchromesh gearboxes and when changing down to go uphill.
I also remember some very good practice advocated by police car drivers. In a queue at the lights leave enough space between you and the car in front so that you could see its rear wheels. This meant that you could pull out if called to an emergency.
It struck me this week that this sort of care and as it were “hanging back” has a wider application. It is so easy to rush into a job of work. Assuming knowledge before really knowing what’s going on. This is particularly true in these days of instantaneous communication when clients are pushing for an immediate answer which pressurises professional people to oblige.
However that can be a mistake and approaching a matter with a degree of circumspection and caution in the first place will almost always pay dividends in the longer run. No client or customer will thank you for getting it wrong. Horace said around 65BC A word once let out of the cage cannot be whistled back again.
History is littered with generals who wished they had sized up their enemies a bit more carefully before engaging them. General Custer at the disastrous Battle of the Little Bighorn was advised by Brig. Gen. Alfred Terry to await reinforcements which were approaching. Instead he attacked with tired troops and horses that had just completed a 30 mile march, with disastrous consequences.
I rather like this quote from Ruta Sepetys,a Lithuanian-American writer of historical fiction: “We cannot be too cautious, Hannelore. Just because someone knocks on the door doesn't mean you have to open it. Sometimes, sweet girl, there are wolves at the door. If we are not careful, they might eat us.”
And perhaps more concisely as Alexander Pope said in 1711 For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
Driving however could be more difficult – I remember my father teaching me the lost art of how to double declutch, useful before synchromesh gearboxes and when changing down to go uphill.
I also remember some very good practice advocated by police car drivers. In a queue at the lights leave enough space between you and the car in front so that you could see its rear wheels. This meant that you could pull out if called to an emergency.
It struck me this week that this sort of care and as it were “hanging back” has a wider application. It is so easy to rush into a job of work. Assuming knowledge before really knowing what’s going on. This is particularly true in these days of instantaneous communication when clients are pushing for an immediate answer which pressurises professional people to oblige.
However that can be a mistake and approaching a matter with a degree of circumspection and caution in the first place will almost always pay dividends in the longer run. No client or customer will thank you for getting it wrong. Horace said around 65BC A word once let out of the cage cannot be whistled back again.
History is littered with generals who wished they had sized up their enemies a bit more carefully before engaging them. General Custer at the disastrous Battle of the Little Bighorn was advised by Brig. Gen. Alfred Terry to await reinforcements which were approaching. Instead he attacked with tired troops and horses that had just completed a 30 mile march, with disastrous consequences.
I rather like this quote from Ruta Sepetys,a Lithuanian-American writer of historical fiction: “We cannot be too cautious, Hannelore. Just because someone knocks on the door doesn't mean you have to open it. Sometimes, sweet girl, there are wolves at the door. If we are not careful, they might eat us.”
And perhaps more concisely as Alexander Pope said in 1711 For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
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