Rules of Thumb

Recently browsing through one of the free outdoor magazines found at any of our many outdoor stores, I came across an interesting article discussing the author’s (Joe Lavelle, There & Back, 2009) different little “rules of thumb” he has collected over time. Below is a few of the more thought provoking rules of thumb including:

1. Rule of Peer Pressure: If “friends” provide friction against good judgment, get new friends.
2. Setback Tenent: Never Attribute to bad luck what can be adequately explained by poor judgment.
3. Law of Disintegration: Large problems are made up of many little questions; solve large problems by resolving easy questions.
4. Role of Instincts: Trust instincts to tell us when something is wrong; do not trust instincts tot ell us when something is right.
5. The Error of the Big Pix: It isn’t the accumulation of little mistakes that causes all of the trouble; it is the big mistake we make trying to correct them that does us in.

While these and many more rules definitely pertain to survival in the outdoors, they are certainly not limited to that portion of our lives. We can benefit in our daily lives from their more frequent use. Given the overwhelming wordsy, folksy sounding number of rules out there I think it’s easy for their many messages get lost. For me it leads to one rule of thumb I think is important: learn from our mistakes and especially the mistakes of others. These rules of thumbs are there to help guide us through life. Why not take advantage of them?

Last important rule of thumb provided, which you backpackers will understand is:

Rule of Uncapped Inevitability: A bottle set down with the opening unsecured will spill.