Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

It is such a good favor when someone shows me one of my mistakes.

I recently taught a class where the group walked through a series of instructions I had written. A stroke of brilliance—I rarely claim that, but in this case I do—came to me. I had a half dozen one-dollar bills with me. I started a quick bug-hunting program.

“If you find an error in what I wrote, I will give you a dollar.” The group found five or six over a two-day period.

It would have taken me many days to find those errors. I claim that as several persons and myself had reviewed the material and found all the errors prior to the class (boy, were we wrong).

I am not always happy when someone shows me one of my mistakes. There, I confessed.

I should be happy when someone shows me one of my mistakes. I should strive to run these bug-hunting exercises more often. A few dollar bills is an amazingly cheap way to improve my products.