SC - murphy's research law

[Bonne of Traquair]

>
>but asking them, getting an answer that
>satisfies the specs at the time, and being satisfied with that answer
>forever can be as damaging. I'm just pointing this out as an academic
>point, I guess; it really has nothing to do with you or with crabs.
>
> > I have to redact 25 recipes by Saturday.  Redaction Marathon here I 
>come!!!
>
>I guess this is why I said the above. You may find yourself concluding
>and saying things on Saturday you later wish you hadn't, or you may find
>that some qualification or clarification is necessary. You probably
>shouldn't become too attached to what you come up with in the next four
>or five days: what you're learning is certainly valid, but I'm sure
>you'll learn more after that, and it'll almost certainly have some
>bearing on the project.

I've learned to live with the fact that the most useful bit of information 
won't be aquired until after the class is taught or the feast is given.  I'm 
usually researching up until the last week, and doing the write up 
afterward, and only during the write up do I finally have time to check ALL 
the cross-references I've noted.  So that's when I discover my 'educated 
guess' was a little farther off the mark than I thought, and now, oh! geez! 
people have heard me say it, seen me serve it and think they have a quotable 
fact! (well, that's as much their fault as mine, if they are going to depend 
on me as a resource, they are depending on a very inexperienced and 
undereducted resource.)

worse yet, months later, I'll be reading about something else entirely and 
find a detail I wasn't even aware I should be looking for and basically feel 
like I should start all over on that topic.

Very frustrating.  Would you beleive I'm currently considering going back to 
school to study all this stuff for real?

Bonne
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