Cavemen and Written Instructions

Bicycles, cribs, swing sets, cameras, computer systems, hobby items, and cavemen "toys." They all have one thing in common...written instructions.

Do cavemen follow the written instructions? I just left the area blank because you filled in the answer in your head.

Cavemen know that written instructions for things were written by other cavemen who used their high level of sequential tasking to write a step-by-step set of instruction to be followed in order to assemble or use the item the written instructions were packaged with.

Cavemen, being inherently sequential-tasking themselves, find it naturally needless to follow instruction written by other cavemen. Our mind tells us that written instructions are meant for multi-taskers to use to understand how something should be assembled or used.

Cavemen simply think they see the finished item fully assembled and take it apart in their mind until it looks like the many pieces just removed from the packaging. Once disassembled in their mind, they simply try to put it back together. One of the problems is is that we cavemen tend to only see the big pieces and forgo thought of the little things like nuts, bolts, and washers.

Does not reading instructions lead to problems? Again, I need not waste keystrokes to put your answer on this blog.

When I was a young father, I used to build radio controlled vehicles for myself and my sons. Once I was able to put the things together, we had a great time running them around our neighborhood and crashing into things. I usually tried to pick the easiest models to build because it meant I didn't need to use the instruction books. I was pretty good until I got a mid-engine, four-wheel drive model. That one stayed in the box for quite some time before I let caveson build it. Reading instructions are such a bore.

When Caveson was eleven, and we had wrecked, very happily I might add, just about every radio controlled vehicle we played with, he came to me with the desire to built an electric radio controlled helicopter. Now this was testing time for me. We got the "Whisper" helicopter with the notion that we would work on it together. And we did. I tried my darnedest to help him build his project by using written instructions as little as possible. I didn't do so well. Caveson knew at his young age that he didn't have the knowledge at the time to ignore the instructions, like I thought I had. He read the instructions and completed his helicopter. It flew. Just a little. But it flew long enough and high enough for caveson to be happy and me to be so proud of him. He quickly tired of his finished helicopter and moved on to other projects.

My caveson and my non-caveson tried to teach me a valuable lesson. Read the instructions. Alas I am still a caveman. Cavemen write instructions for non-cavemen. Now how do I get the video I recorded on my still camera to play back? Oh-oh, I might have to read the instructions.