HS #20 2017.4.4
Practicing Precision
All of you in your fifties and older, I invite you to take a
short trip with me into our past. You
young’uns, feel free to come along for the ride.
Remember elementary school? We colored with crayons and
water colors – trying hard to stay within the lines. A couple grades later, we
practiced writing in cursive – carefully making bs and ks. We played games like hop-scotch,
jacks, and pick up sticks. Hobbies included making model cars – requiring
precise gluing and decal work. Young girls cut out doll clothes.
We learned how to multiply four digit numbers together –
being careful to carry and add correctly. Subtraction and division took even
more care. A mistake at any point ruined the entire answer.
In typing class we practiced correct key strokes, because a
mistake required getting out a bottle of white-out fluid, dabbing it on the
mistake, and blowing it dry. Too many of them, and we had to retype the page. Shop class included drafting – drawing precise
lines and letters with sharpened HB and 2H pencils.
Those of us who took computer classes in college learned the
trials of submitting a stack of IBM cards to the mainframe, waiting two hours,
then hoping that a single spelling or punctuation error didn’t stop the
program. If it did, we fixed the
mistake, crossed our fingers, and resubmitted. Since I was an undergraduate at the University
of North Dakota, that often meant walking a half-mile across campus in 20 below
temps at midnight. No fooling.
How far we have come.
The cost of making mistakes is now negligible. Don’t know how to spell a word? Type
something close and your computer will correct it. Calculators make tedious
calculations unnecessary. Drafting with pencils is replaced with CAD (computer
aided design). Cars parallel park themselves. We are living in the golden age.
Or are we? Without realizing it, all of that tedium built
within us an appreciation of and practice in precision. And practicing precision with our hands and
heads may well have affected the character of our hearts.
Full engagement, concentration, and precision have been
replaced with multitasking. Twenty years
ago, Linda Stone coined the term “continuous partial attention” (CPA) to
describe the way many of us now live our lives. Instead of being fully intent
and losing ourselves in an activity, we multitask – while keeping one ear
listening for a cell phone to ring. Consequently, we may be losing the practice
of precision and focused concentration - with predictable results.
After falling for years, auto collision
fatalities have risen 14% in the last two years. Pedestrian deaths increased
11% last year alone. (Have you noticed that cars seem to stray outside of their
lanes more often?) After decades without a flaw, the recent Academy Awards
debacle and Miss America snafu are celebrated examples of errors due to inattention
and carelessness.
But as an educator, I’m mostly concerned with how the
declination in focus and precision might be affecting character. “Cleanliness is next to godliness” begins
making sense. Since technology is here to stay, what can be done?
During my college years, I spent 15-20 hours a week in Bible
studies and evangelism with Campus Crusade for Christ. Given the noble mission,
the Campus Director suggested that we students apply the 80-20 principle. It
posits that one generally receives 80% of the benefit of an activity in 20% of
the time/cost. E.g., exercising
vigorously for 30 minutes a day gives significant health benefit, while increasing
to two hours/day will give only limited additional benefit. Diminishing
returns.
Thus he encouraged us to spend less time on our studies –
settle for B’s in our classes, and use the remaining time for ministry.
I pondered the suggestion. I could see the economy of settling
for 80% in many things. On the other hand, it seemed that one should be devoted
to some pursuits with full commitment in order to achieve excellence. Since I was
heading to graduate school in mathematics, I concluded that my studies required
that total commitment, but that I could apply the 80-20 principle to other activities.
So I cut back my time in ministry.
So in an age of CPA, multitasking, and texted sentence
fragments, it might do us all well to find something – at least one thing in
our lives- to do with unmitigated excellence and attention. Pursuing a passion
with precision to perfection might do more than cut down on traffic mishaps, it
might be good for your soul.
