Why do people try to do things that they should not try to do themselves? Home improvement is one area where I uncovered one disaster of an attempt after another by previous owners. Decided I will avoid discussing that topic here.

George T. set the standard of showing people how to learn by not doing what he did. 

I watched him place powder for an experiment in a gallon glass jar sitting on the lab table at work. He courtly added water then mixed it thoroughly. Since it was 10 minutes until quitting time, he announced he would pause the experiment until the morning, not that I was listening. He tightly sealed up the jar for preservation until he could resume the tests. Being in my first job out of college, I kept my mouth shut instead of asking him what was on my mind. In my schooling I had learned about a compound called Lanthanum Oxide, which, when mixed with water, gives off a large amount of gas as a byproduct. Since my new workplace used this compound in some formulas, the thought struck me hard what would happen if a glass jar was sealed with such a dangerous mixture. Surely this seasoned engineer, who was to be my mentor and help me to become the engineer I was destined to be, would not have placed Lanthanum in that jar. I was determined to stay in my lane (a phrase we did not know back then). 

I arrived at work the next morning to find George standing on the table scraping powder off the ceiling. The glass jar was now only able to hold a cup in volume as nearly all of it had blown up when the lid gave in to the mounting pressure from inside. He had already swept the glass pieces from most of the surrounding area but thought he should clean the stalagmite evidence dangling from above before the boss showed up.

Quickly realizing that what I would learn from this person was exactly how not to do a job, my powers of observation adjusted. It may have been the best lesson I could have learned. I will share more in my post next week as George was surprisingly a fountain of learning to be seen rather than exuding fountain of knowledge to be learned.

Not sure many people can say that. A few come to mind. Charlie Chaplin, Tim the Toolman, Harpo Marx, Inspector Clouseau, Kim Kardashian, Frick or Frack whichever one which did all the less ups, and several Browns quarterbacks are first to arrive in my frontal lobe for consideration.

Hope that you have a Happy Friday.