That old professor told me to stop digging so fast and he was right

I was at a dig site in southern New Mexico last summer and a retired archaeologist named Dr. Reyes kept telling me to slow way down. He said I was scraping too fast and missing small pottery shards. I ignored him at first because I wanted to cover more ground. By the end of the week, he pulled out three tiny painted fragments from a spot I had already cleared. I felt like an idiot and now I always take my time. Has anyone else had a mentor call them out on rushing? What did you learn?

3 comments

3 Comments

faithcampbell1mo ago

My dad used to do the exact same thing when I was learning to cook with him as a kid. I'd be chopping onions way too fast trying to get through a whole bag, and he'd stop me to show how I was missing the root ends that hold everything together. It's funny how the same lesson shows up everywhere, isn't it? We think speed equals progress, but all that rushing just means we have to go back and redo half of it later.

the_viola29d agoMost Upvoted

And the funny thing is, that lesson sticks with you your whole life. I had a similar thing happen years back when I was trying to get through a big pile of paperwork for taxes. I was flying through it, thinking I was so productive, and then realized I'd missed half the forms and had to pull everything back out and start over. Now I make myself slow down at the start of anything important, even if it feels like I'm wasting time. It's just like you said with those onions. Cutting the root right the first time saves you from having to pick little bits of skin out of the whole bowl later. Speed is overrated when you end up doing the work twice.

logan_young291mo ago

Buddy of mine wrecked his first batch of cookies rushing the dough and had to start over from scratch.