“Second-Guessing Is Not Strategy”—Oh, Yeah?

1. Welcome to the latest Friday Funnies. This time we examine the implications of the closing quote from a recent e-mail: “Hindsight is not wisdom and second-guessing is not strategy.”

A. If that is true, all I can say is, “Oops,” given that second-guessing sums up our entire business plan. Which brings me to a series of decisions I faced last summer while painting the eaves on my two-story house. It was built back when Gehrig and Ruth were starting for the Yankees, and Jean Harlow was starring in “Red-Headed Woman” at the local theater. My eaves are composed of about three feet of 2-by-12 rafter tips, extending past the walls, and the underside of sheathing beneath the slate roof. I was working off a ladder. Everything was going fine until I got to the area above the front porch, which has a slate-covered hip roof that sticks out far enough to keep me from using the aforementioned ladder.

B. I had two options. I could stop work, clean up, get on the phone, rent some scaffold and wait for it to be delivered. Or I could just scrape, caulk and paint that section while standing precariously on the porch roof, holding onto a rafter tip with one hand. I suspected that the former way is the right way. I, however, had a full head of steam, little fear of heights, and plenty of trust in my sense of balance. I didn’t plan on slipping and tumbling down into the boxwood and holly. At the same time, should that happen, I knew I would also have to come before the assembled audience of the Summary of Mishaps and add myself yet again to the cast of knuckleheads.

C. Hmm, what to do, what to do. After a full three minutes of deliberation, I stepped off the ladder onto the roof and started scraping. The falling flakes of paint didn’t exactly improve my traction on the slate, but I had to do only about 12 feet worth of eaves, so I scraped away, watching my step and steadying myself with my free arm.

D. Then a pair of wasps showed up and began investigating. I immediately began exercising my time-critical risk-management skills. I’d been wondering if the nest I had just scraped off was active. Which brought me to another decision point: Retreat and get some wasp spray? Keep working and ignore them? Use my large scraper as a defensive weapon?

E. So here’s the question: What would you have done? This is your chance to try out our brand new feedback feature at nrfk_safe_funnies@navy.mil. We’ll compile and publish the results. Also, I’ll tell you what I actually did.

2. For what it’s worth, I’m still second-guessing myself. See you next week.