Accurate vs. Precise, OR Well, but Wrong.

Recently my dad was talking about the difference in being precise or being accurate. An architect can be very precise in his measurements, down to several hundreths of an inch, but if he's a foot off from where he should be measuring from, his very precise measurement is precisely inaccurate! On the other hand, someone else can be not quite so precise as the first guy, but yet have a more accurate measurement, if this guy started from and ended at the right places, though he may only measure in one-inch increments.

All that to say, I just realized that there are several things that I do that are accurately imprecise. Things that I do "wrong", but well:

- For example, I type very quickly and with good accuracy, but I don't type "the way you're supposed to." I just don't do the asdf, jkl; thing right. In fact I don't use my pinkies at all, except for my left pinky, whose sole purpose is to press "shift." (Poor little right pinky never gets to do anything!)
- I also don't write cursive correctly. My "cursive" is neither print nor cursive, yet contains elements of each.
- Another thing that was recently brought to my attention was that I don't tap my fingers correctly. You know, like when someone is tapping their fingers because they're impatient. (But I would never be impatient, of course... Just so you know.) I start from my first finger and end on my pinky, whereas everyone else in my family starts with their pinkies and ends on their first finger. Oh well, what can I say? I remember having to teach myself how to even do it my way! [You may not know, though you should, that I am very uncoordinated, (though I've improved somewhat) so it was a big deal to me several years ago that I couldn't tap my fingers in a run like everybody else! What I failed to notice was the order in which they were tapped...] So now I can only do it wrong. I would have to force myself to relearn it, if I wanted to, to do it "right."
- I also never fill out forms in the right order. I skip around and come back to things, and check over what I've done to see if I missed anything. I've found that when I have to write receipts in our book at the library that I jump all around the page, filling out first one section, then another, but yet I do it in my same mixed-up way every time. Once again, I am being, though accurate (it all gets filled in), very imprecise (it's done crazy-like).

This tendency to be accurate, but not precise, may have something to do with my learning style. I think I'm classified as a Concrete Random... But a lesson I've learned from noticing these tendencies is how important it is to learn something right the first time. It really doesn't matter mcuh how I type or write or fill out forms or tap my fingers, I know. But in more serious areas of life, it is important to learn something the right way, the first time. It's always harder to re-learn something when you've first learned it incorrectly. So kids, listen to your parents and learn to do things the way they say to, and even more importantly, learn your spelling words right the first time! ;-)