Correct Enough

My last blog was about measuring how many pennies were in a ton.  In it I mentioned that I had to narrow down the scope of the calculations to include only those pennies made since 1982 as previously minted pennies were not the same weight.  Also, I had to list the assumption that the pennies were new enough not to have enough wear and tear to lower their weight or not to have a significant amount of dirt and grime on them to raise their weight.  I ended up with the number of pennies in a ton being 362,880.  That was “correct enough” to satisfy my curiosity.

Earlier this week, my manager and I were working on a communication that was to go out to our entire organization (over 1,000 people).  The email was about 2 pages in length and outlined a summary of the project that has taken up most of my work life over the previous (6) months or so.  We were working on the last sentence of a paragraph near the end of the communication and struggling with the right balance of detail and brevity.  The sentence we were working on was a simple statement but to make it 100% accurate would have taken another dedicated paragraph (at least) to explain the possible exceptions to the truth we were trying to convey.  After a long pause, I simply stated that the sentence was “correct enough” (those were my exact words).  My manager thought this was a funny concept (or at least a funny way of saying it) and we had a good laugh before moving on and finishing up our editing.

I have thought about this off and on since that time.  I think “correct enough” defines a lot of things I say or communicate (either face to face or on the phone or in an email, blog or facebook post).   I am constantly deciding if the target audience cares about the small exceptions that might make a statement “less correct”.  Actually, if I am more interested in making sure that the target audience will never see or come across an exception that might make my statement appear incorrect (I am a human male, I hate being proved wrong).  I think most people make these decisions unconsciously every day, multiple times a day.  And I think we are all OK with that.

I have to be careful though.  For some reason I have a believable face.  I could say some statement that may or may not be true and somehow convince my audience that whatever it was that I said is true and there is no need to research it.  I discovered this one day about 15 years ago while I was working at a foundry.  I had grown a beard for whatever reason and while in the break room one day another employee told me I looked like Abraham Lincoln’s son.  I replied, “But, Lincoln did not have any sons.”  To which my co-worker replied, “Oh yeah, that’s right.”  I have no idea why I said what I said but I was amazed that this person was so easily swayed by my poker face (by the way, the Lincolns had 4 sons).  I still feel a little bad over this exchange these many years later.

So you see, “correct enough” for me carries this extra burden of running the risk of being deceptive.  People trust me (for whatever reason) to speak the truth and to be more than “correct enough” in my statements.  It is a terrible burden to bear but one that I fear will be with me the rest of my life so I had better resign myself to this fact.  According to Señor Google, this makes me a “persuader” or a “energetic do-er” (I think I like the latter better).  Either way, I promise not to abuse this power.

That last statement is “correct enough”. :-)

Jon