"there should be no such thing as strong sword blows or weak sword blows. a swing of a sword made with the intention to swing powerfully is rough, and you can hardly win by roughness alone.
"in my school, no consideration is given to anything unreasonable: the heart of the matter is to use the power of the knowledge of martial arts to gain victory any way you can. this must be worked out thoroughly."
miyamoto musashi, the book of five rings pp 75-76
it has been a wild week at the warehouse. lots of inventory coming in, going out, and everything in between. projects this week included gutting a mexican restaurant, palletizing 8 pallets worth of ice cream machines and commercial smokers, and building a shipping crate for an 80qt floor mixer that weighed as much as a small car.
when i was working at the cabinet shop i learned there were two ways to do things: the right way and the stupid way. the former made money and the latter got you hurt. i learned this the hard way when i shot a two-inch staple through my finger trying to build something that really only needed a couple of screws and some glue. brute force and ignorance doesn't accomplish anything in and of itself. i've learned a lot since then.
reason is the weapon of the warehouse warrior and the attack is occam's razor: the best solution to an issue is more often than not the one that makes the fewest assumptions.
one of the things we do is 'flip' restaurant equipment. things acquired cheaply, rebuilt and made better, and sold at a profit. sometimes a handsome profit at that. sir frederick takes care of the guts of these machines and he is a voodoo ninja wizard when it comes to the innards of restaurant equipment. cosmetic things are usually left up to me. some of the things i've flipped were a disaster. some things will simply not get clean and shiny, no matter how hard you scrub and buff and polish and it is unreasonable to think that it will. a powerful swing of the proverbial sword will simply not cut it alone, no pun intended. i was working on a god-awful convection oven not to long ago. ovens are the worst. the combination of heat and grease is an amazing thing. someday i'm going to invent something based on the properties of the combination of heat and grease. maybe a violin lacquer. i will be sought after the world over because this lacquer will produce the best sounding violins since the stradivarius. then i can finally buy that house on the mediterranean...anyway, a topic for another post. all the industrial de-greasers and caustic solutions will not get this oven clean. changing gears i get the power sander. a good sanding and some carefully applied high-heat exterior paint and this oven looks brand new. the opponent is bested through an artful blend of knowing technique, skillful execution, and a parsimonious outlook on life in general. all is right with the universe.
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