Tuesday, June 21, 2005

Learning 101.

Many years back, I was forced by higher powers to attend one of those 'seminars' on How To Improve Your Work Skills.
The first test of our abilities, the lecturer explained, was to find out how good our observational skills were.
"This should be fun" I thought, and followed the rest of the class into a room, where tables had been set with some blank sheets of paper, pens, and also some 'exam sheets' that had yet to be turned over - one set of each per 'pupil'.
We all sat down, and the lecturer explained that in a couple of minutes, he wanted us to turn over the exam sheet, and read it thoroughly and carefully before doing anything else. The 'exam' would last for ten minutes.
On the command, I turned the page.
At the top, in clear letters was 'Read all of the questions on this sheet before answering any of them'.
I read through, and at the bottom of the page where question 20 should have been was, again in clear letters. 'Do not answer any of the questions on this page'.
Only one other person in that class of about twenty people did the same as I,which was to put the pen down and relax.
The rest of them grabbed their pens and set about frantically answering everything and getting worked up over nothing.

In conclusion, in life, it pays to find out all the facts and READ THINGS CAREFULLY before jumping off into the deep end.

If one does, they may save themselves a lot of wasted time and effort, and might possibly learn something.