Cheesy

Tips and Recommendations from Guru Mike Nixon

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mikenixon
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Cheesy

#1

Post by mikenixon »

Folks push back with surprising frequency when I talk about the proper way to do a valve job or rehabilitate an engine's cylinders or the right parts and techniques to use in rebuilding a carburetor. I get it. I understand the real world, that there are financial and other reasons for not doing a thing exactly, perfectly right. For, in short, not using best practices. But when people want to argue the very *idea* of best practice, as if there is no such thing? That, I don't get. And frankly, I have little patience for it.

Best practices do exist, in every field. I had some spicy queso for lunch the other day. I know the dip I was eating wasn't one-hundred percent cheese. No way. Cheese-based products are among the most adulterated of foods. Additives such as cellulose, corn starch and who knows what are used to stretch the stuff out, make it more cheaply. But it's still called "cheese", isn't it? Unless you read the fine print somewhere, you don't know how much cheese is in your cheese. And usually not even then.

But no one has to tell you that in the cheese world there is good, better and best. Just as in wine, tax preparation and housepaint. Right? Part of being a smart consumer is realizing there is such a thing as due diligence. Best practices. It's simply looking at things from the expert's point of view. Staying with the food example let's consider the span between similarly-appearing aged New York sharp cheddar and Cheese Whiz. Yum. Now there's a spectrum! Where do you want to fall within that range? Somewhere in the middle is, I suppose, "pub cheese". First taste, not bad. After that, Ugh. Definitely there is a ways to go to get to the real thing even from there. The point is there is indeed a range of percepted reality, of acceptable quality. There is such a thing as the best practice and you deny that fact when you use aftermarket gaskets, oil filters and air filters, and reuse your drain plug washer so many times it curls up like a potato chip. (An abundance of food allegories here today. Hmm.)

You have choices. You know that intuitively. Why not treat owning a vintage motorcycle and acquiring parts and services for it the same way? Why not turn off your computer, get off Facebook and "face" reality? Social media is not doing you any favors. Electronic sources of advice do not celebrate best practices. Realize that doing something the right way is not necessarily at odds with doing it economically. Like my website motto says, Quality doesn't cost, it pays!
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desertrefugee
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Re: Cheesy

#2

Post by desertrefugee »

Coming down the homestretch of my career in Test Engineering, I’m doing time at Intel. Intel has an acronym for everything. Their glossary of acronyms is probably 40 or 50 pages, I’d have to check. One that I hadn’t heard and that is used quite often is BKM.

Best Known Method

Short cuts are never a good idea, whether it be fettling with a GL1000 or optimizing Tokyo Electron lithographic wafer processing system.
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mikenixon
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Joined: Thu Dec 10, 2009 1:51 am
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Re: Cheesy

#3

Post by mikenixon »

"BKM". I like it! :)
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