Avoiding dreaded piss poor production

Iceboat season is year-round, with warm weather tinkering to prepare for the winter sailing. In this report, Charlie Silfvenius shares the challenges of tinkering:

Anyone who has a few years under their belt has adopted a few acronyms in their vocabulary. Granted most of these are used in texting to relay quick items such as LOL or TTFN as my students used often. (Junior high). The army term, SNAFU, is actually used in some cartoons during WWII. In any of my major undertakings, the P7 has played a major part.

For the uninitiated, P7 (P to the 7th power) refers to “Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Production”. (I used P6 with my students but we’re all adults here, right?) I’ve incorporated some adaptations as I plan my projects these days such as the rule of thumb to triple the time and cost from your first estimate. This makes the overrides at the end seem not that bad.

However, the time management fact needs more than the time limit. One also needs to factor in the impromptu barbecues, extended shopping trips because your wife (partner) decided to join with her own shopping agenda, that breeze that came up that wasn’t predicted so you just had to sail, etc.

So, as the summer days seem to be passing, and your plan to spruce up that iceboat you lovingly made 30 years ago are continually on your mind, perhaps it’s about time for P7 to go into effect.

Thus, I calculated approximately a 40 hour week should do it. The task did not seem all that daunting. Strip the hardware, some good 80 grit sandpaper with a light touch, and a few hours outside in the shade should get everything ready for a new clear coat of epoxy and some accent paint to cover a few boo boos. I figured by our road trip in September, it would be ready to put back in the trailer.

This is where you forgot to factor in those other time eaters. Okay, the five days at the music festival were great and the week camping on the Maine coast with a group of life long friends was super too. The meniscus knee surgery snuck in there (recovery going well). Oh yeah, and then we need to move everything out of downstairs to have our wood floors refinished.

And don’t forget to pull the sailboat off the lake before we go. The island friends will want to see us before we go and I probably should cut the grass. Somehow I think that 40 hours may take three months to squeeze in. The good news is I have other iceboats if needed when the early ice gets here.

So, as I continue to let life get in the way of my plans, I am an iceboater which means I’m an eternal optimist and with more practice, P7 will improve with every project. Besides, this is what puttering is supposed to be like, right?

I hope the rest of you are properly planning your projects to avoid the dreaded piss poor production. Wish me luck!

Source: https://theneiya.org/2024/08/21/p7-or-p-to-the-seventh-power/