{"id":762,"date":"2011-03-28T01:41:40","date_gmt":"2011-03-28T06:41:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/?p=762"},"modified":"2011-03-12T13:54:39","modified_gmt":"2011-03-12T18:54:39","slug":"be-prepared-to-be-unprepared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/2011\/03\/be-prepared-to-be-unprepared\/","title":{"rendered":"Be Prepared to be Unprepared"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>by Dwayne Phillips<\/p>\n<p><strong>I have learned that I am not capable of being prepared for everything. Hence, I have learned to be prepared for being unprepared.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I often speak in front of people, lead discussions, teach classes, and generally attend meetings where people ask me questions. I am often unprepared for what people ask. I am, however, prepared to be unprepared.<\/p>\n<p>This preparing to be unprepared may seem odd, but I have met many people who feel the need to be absolutely ready to answer any question and encounter any situation. Perhaps I am not as smart as they or maybe I am just too lazy these days. I prefer to think of it as being more realistic in my estimation of my own abilities.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I am just not smart enough to be prepared for everything.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Hence, I prepare to be unprepared. This isn&#8217;t that difficult once I admit my own failings. What I do is have all the needed answers at the ready. Answers such as:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I don&#8217;t know.<\/li>\n<li>I can&#8217;t remember.<\/li>\n<li>I recall seeing or hearing something about that, but I don&#8217;t have the details with me.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I am not refusing to work. The above unprepared prepared responses are followed by:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If you wish, I will take the time and effort to learn about that.<\/li>\n<li>If you wish, I will research that and refresh my memory.<\/li>\n<li>If you wish, I will find my notes and learn the details.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When I talk to some people about my unprepared preparedness, they tell me<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>You couldn&#8217;t get away with that where I work. If you gave such an answer, you would be eaten alive.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Further discussion reveals that the people have actually never seen anyone eaten alive, cut to pieces, killed, or any other such hyperbole that is often tossed about. I suppose that is the foundation of my preparedness of the unprepared. Some wise people helped me to notice that such threats were hyperbole and not reality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Dwayne Phillips I have learned that I am not capable of being prepared for everything. Hence, I have learned to be prepared for being unprepared. I often speak in front of people, lead discussions, teach classes, and generally attend meetings where people ask me questions. I am often unprepared for what people ask. I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,17,63,20,25],"tags":[173,139,183,142,147],"class_list":["post-762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-choose","category-culture","category-expectations","category-learning","category-meetings","tag-choose","tag-culture","tag-expectations","tag-learning","tag-meetings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":763,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions\/763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwaynephillips.net\/workingup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}