NOTES: The Not to do and Not to Know List

I was talking to a good friend who was interested in many of the things I do. He asked me how much I bought my shoes for. I said I honestly don’t know. My wife bought it for me. He asked me how much was the tuition of my children in that particular school. I told him I also don’t know. He also asked me how much was the plane fare I paid for the last trip I took. I said the office got that, but also I didn’t really know.

He was looking at me curiously, and I knew I had to come up with an explanation. I told him I trust my wife to make these judgments, and if it is something I don’t need to know, I told her she did not have to tell me. I said I had to remember too many things in the office that I did not want to cram to my head too much information . Anyway, I know where to look for the information should I need to know.

This attitude was probably inculcated from me from some of the books I read, particularly Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes series. Sherlock Holmes is the classic detective well known for his observation powers, great memory, and clear logic. I remember there was a passage where they were talking about the planets of the solar system, and the stars, and after making the inquiries, Sherlock Holmes announced that now he knew, he would take effort to forget what he has been told.

When asked by Dr. Watson why, he said that while knowing the planets were interesting, he failed to see what good it would do in his crime detection work, and therefore did not want to put his head to remembering these ‘useless’ facts. Not having to remember useless facts means his head could also remember the useful facts better, he said.

There are so many things to know or to do. It is easy to get defocus.

We should remind ourselves that what is not worth doing, is not worth doing well.

The first thing towards excellence is to focus your energies on the things worth doing.

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