This post by Derek Lowe is about spending the time necessary to develop technical skill as a scientist, but I could not resist the impulse to draw the analogy to learning how to raise children.
That said, I take Nielsen’s point about putting in good hours rather than empty ones. As much as possible, I think that we should try to do things that we haven’t done before, learn new skills, and move into untried areas. Try not to get butyl-futiled if you can possibly avoid it; it’s not going to do you much good, personally, to set up another six or eight EDC couplings. There are times that that’s exactly what needs to be done, but don’t set them up just because you can’t think of anything else. This gets back to the point I’ve made about making yourself valuable; anyone can set up amide reactions, unfortunately. Maybe some of the time we spend learning our trade is spent learning how to avoid falling into all the tar pits and time-wasting sinkholes we have.
I think I'll leave drawing the actual analogy as an exercise for the reader. But the phrase "good hours rather than empty ones" is resonating with me.
bearing blog 