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Does Halfwit Plus Halfwit Equal Fullwit?

But what about the sum of ½ + ½? That equals one, right?

I share office space with an attorney friend, Kevin. We frequently work together on land development projects. The other day I was roughing out a simple joint access agreement whereby road construction costs would be shared between our development and a neighboring property. I had it pretty well hammered out except for one nagging issue.

“Kevin,” I said, breaking the white silence of our office and wrenching him, no doubt, from some highly important legal task. I felt a little guilty about bugging him, but not too much because he often pesters me with technical questions. “I’m having trouble deciding the timeframe of this road agreement. See, if we get access through this neighbor’s property, we’ll have to do a deal right away. But, it could be that we get a new access from the east, in which case this agreement would be wasted.”

“Hmm,” he puzzled, coming over to take a seat by my desk.“And what is the downside of doing nothing at this time?”

This elementary question made me pause. I hadn’t really thought through all the what-ifs. As our conversation expanded, it became clear that my seemingly simple access agreement had nuances, branches and if-thens I hadn’t considered. After an hour of dissecting, we had the crux nailed down, which to my surprise was not even part of my original thinking.

As he strolled back to his desk we joked that luckily there are two of us halfwits in the office because together we make a fullwit — barely. Ha-ha!

Truly, though, what if Kevin hadn’t been there? What if I was a Lone Ranger, never needing the assistance of anyone? There is no doubt my finished products would not be as good as with an extra set of eyes and ears. Heck, the Lone Ranger really wasn’t alone anyway; he had Tonto, not to mention his trusty steed, HiYo-Silver, or whatever.

So, what about you? It doesn’t matter what line of work you’re in, there are many, many fine opportunities to get advice and assistance from someone else. Are you too proud to ask?

It’s funny, the ones who most need advice are usually the least likely to ask. I recall a young engineer, we’ll call him “Tim,” who thought that because there was this title, “Engineer” attached to his name, he certainly must know everything about everything. And so he blundered through the first years of his career striving valiantly to hoodwink people into believing he really did know everything. Of course, he fooled no one and instead, after the “fool-ees” stopped chuckling behind his back, they were sure never to hire him again.

The ironic part is now that I, uh, I mean “Tim” is one of the fool-ees; he understands and expects folks not to know everything — particularly young folks. And if they simply fess up about their shortcomings, “Tim” is very impressed with their honesty and much more likely to hire and rehire them than if they try to snow job him.

Bottom line: Two sound minds are better than one. Don’t be shy about asking for a little advice or peer review when you need it. Wasn’t it John Wayne who so eloquently said: “Life is hard. But it’s a lot harder if you’re dumb.”

Tim Garrison of ConstructionCalc.com, is a professional engineer, author and software producer for the building industry. Send e-mail to buildersengineer@constructioncalc.com. Tim reads every one.

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The views expressed in this article represent the personal views, statements and opinions of the author and do not necessarily represent the views, statements, opinions or policies of the National Association of Home Builders. NAHB does not necessarily endorse any of the views expressed by the author and NAHB is not responsible for any direct or indirect consequences arising out of the views expressed in this article.

 

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