That apprentice last week said I was overthinking my feeds and speeds

Kid's been on the machine maybe 6 months. He watched me dial in a cut on some 4140 and just goes "why don't you just send it?" At first I wanted to laugh him out of the shop. But then I thought about it and he kinda had a point. I spend so much time looking for the perfect numbers that I waste half the day adjusting. Meanwhile he just hits go and gets parts that are good enough. I still think there's a time and place for being precise but man it made me rethink my whole approach. Has anyone else had a new guy make you question what you thought you knew?

2 comments

2 Comments

sagesingh23d ago

Good enough isn't the same as right though, lol.

campbell.logan23d ago

You said "good enough isn't the same as right," and I get what you're saying, but I think it depends a lot on context. In a perfect world, sure, we'd always want things to be exactly right. But when you're dealing with real life, especially with things like software or getting a job done, "good enough" often has to be the standard. So my question is this: what standard are you measuring "right" against? Is it some perfect ideal that maybe doesn't even exist in practice, or is it a real, workable solution that solves the problem at hand? Because I've seen people hold out for "right" for so long that the opportunity to get anything done just passes them by.