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We have just returned from a very enjoyable holiday on the west coast of Scotland where we stayed in a charming old cottage equipped with a wood burning stove. The nights were chilly and logs were plentiful so I set the fire and lit it.
It must be at least thirty years since I lit a proper fire in a grate but it was like falling off a log (no pun intended), with the Ovoids and logs quickly creating a very pleasant warmth throughout the evening, and the water heated. Coming in from the log store outside the smell of burning wood mixed with garlic from the kitchen was almost intoxicating. There was a hope that the wood smoke might also keep the midges at bay but that was less successful.
Anyhow, after the first weekend our son joined us and was intrigued by the log burner. I showed him how to set the fire but he had already found something online, and apparently I was doing it all wrong!
Predictably, by Tuesday evening I had been made redundant as our son set about preparing the fire, with tinder in one hand and iPhone in the other. Before we knew it photographs had been taken, Facebook statuses uploaded and the fire lit. All seemed well at first but after about five minutes the flames died out and the stove went cold.
'Has the fire gone out?' we asked. 'Think so' came the reply. 'What went wrong then?' I enquired. 'I dunno, you can do it next time'.
Now I always thought that fire lighting was one of those innate functions hard wired into our DNA from stone age times, but it seems Google, Siri and the internet have changed all that. Indeed there seem to be several valuable lessons to be learned here:
How often have similar things happened in industry I wonder?
It must be at least thirty years since I lit a proper fire in a grate but it was like falling off a log (no pun intended), with the Ovoids and logs quickly creating a very pleasant warmth throughout the evening, and the water heated. Coming in from the log store outside the smell of burning wood mixed with garlic from the kitchen was almost intoxicating. There was a hope that the wood smoke might also keep the midges at bay but that was less successful.
Anyhow, after the first weekend our son joined us and was intrigued by the log burner. I showed him how to set the fire but he had already found something online, and apparently I was doing it all wrong!
Predictably, by Tuesday evening I had been made redundant as our son set about preparing the fire, with tinder in one hand and iPhone in the other. Before we knew it photographs had been taken, Facebook statuses uploaded and the fire lit. All seemed well at first but after about five minutes the flames died out and the stove went cold.
'Has the fire gone out?' we asked. 'Think so' came the reply. 'What went wrong then?' I enquired. 'I dunno, you can do it next time'.
Now I always thought that fire lighting was one of those innate functions hard wired into our DNA from stone age times, but it seems Google, Siri and the internet have changed all that. Indeed there seem to be several valuable lessons to be learned here:
- Regardless of experience, millennials always know better, especially when they have Google on their side;
- You cannot rely on everything you read online;
- An iPhone doesn't keep you warm for very long;
- Being made redundant by a millennial is rarely the end of one's duties.
How often have similar things happened in industry I wonder?
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