Speed/Efficiency As It Relates To Our Outdoor Skills

C

C.F.O.

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Jan 18, 2016
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I'm hoping for some help rounding out my thought here, so forgive my rambling, i'm trying to work through how i feel about this. But basically, what i've been thinking about a lot is, how much do you care about speed when learning/practicing a skill?
I never realized it, but apparently i hold speed/efficiency in a VERY high regard.

When judging someone on their cleaning/butchering skills for instances, i might ask how long it takes you to butcher a bear, or clean a limit of pickerel (walleye.) If we are talking about net making, then often the judge will be how long a rabbit purse net takes you, or how many you can do in an hour... You get the idea. So my question is, do you practice speed? do you practice new efficiencies? or maybe you're more of a "if it's perfect then i don't care how long it takes"

Anyways, i'm not sure where i land on the spectrum... I know speed matters to me, just not sure how much.... Certainly because cleaning fish and furbearers is part of my job, it can bring pain to my heart to watch someone struggle for 15 minutes with cleaning one pike, because i suppose when it's your job, time matters, and i think that's stuck in my head even when i'm not working...
So i guess the equation would be, learn to do it perfect, then practice until you're efficient?

One more story... I can remember the first time i started taking trapping seriously (prior to this i was a young boy, and was learning on my own, and just doing it for myself, MAYBE i was taking 50-100 critters a year. Then i was asked in my teens by a family friend to apprentice and run his trapline with him, i knew him a little and knew that he was taking 3500+ muskrat a year (plus some other work, but this was the bulk of his trapping) I knew i had my work cut out for me, and i knew he liked everything "just-so" and was nervous... The first thing he did was throw me a 110 conibear, and said "set it" and i froze up like i hadn't done it a million times before. If i handled it wrong, i was wasting time, there's too much work to get done, to do it slow/inefficiently. I got through that day, and he made me practice "doing it right" AKA doing it his way, for an hour a day, for two months coming into trapping season, they were only small changes to technique.
It's been 20 years since that moment, and i still remember him throwing me that trap. So i guess it stuck?

A lot of this plays into the "alone" thread, because we all have certain expertise, and i just hadn't realized how much i judge speed. My subconscious is basically saying "you're too slow to be an expert" or "you're not very good because you're slow or inefficient"...

Ramble over... If any of you gear heads watched me change a starter on a boat, or a tire on my car, you'd probably cringe a little too. it's not my forte, but i do get it done.
 
In my experience doing it right is the most important, doing it fast is something that comes from repetition and practice. Bad habits are learned by doing sloppy work too quickly. When it comes to being in the woods, preventing injury is the most important thing. One injury can put an abrupt stop to anything getting done. Making a mistake that may cost you more time might be very bad, but if you go too slow the jobs that need done don't get done. It's really about finding balance. Work just as fast as you can while maintaining the necessary quality of the work being done. Time is a limited resource, and it sounds like you are simply trying to make the best of what you have.

I could equate it to auto racing, one of the highest speed things that there is. Experienced race car drivers will tell you that it's better to slow down and set the car up for the most efficient exit of the turn than it is to rush through the corner and risk losing control. Slipping a tire is wasted lateral traction or wasted forward motion. Conversely, coming to a crawl in a corner makes you lose too much speed and is less efficient. Balance is key.
 
I generally agree with your statement. I think another factor is width vs. depth of experience. I like to think I have a wide range of experience, but I know I don't have depth. I've camped in the canadian prairies and rockies, inland sub-tropical australia and on the coast. I've lit fires under a wide variety of conditions and locations. That makes me no more an expert that a person who in that same 20 years has done the same number of trips, but has confined himself to his own 100 acre wood. Not to diminish that method at all, since I think they are equally valid, just different, and equally important to recognize.

I think we can separate the methods into two categories. Commercial and recreational. The commercial will be a higher total efficiency, but will require more practice, and likely have a much lower margin of error on safety, perhaps even changing the technique to eliminate certain risks, or using a specific piece of kit to do that, say a cut-glove, or a certain blade.

The recreational method would be slower in total, but be overall more focused on safety than production, but also be the sort of skill that doesn't degrade over time as much. A fisherman who fillets 20 fish a year might have his method that mostly works, but takes time over muscle memory to get the precision.

When I taped down mic cables as a living, you quickly sort out the pros from the rest. The old guys would have everything planned out before the first cable was laid and would be able to route the runs that not only predicted traffic, but required the least amount of work. rookies would have a tangled spider's web of cables wrapped up in gaff tape that took hours to clean up. The pro set up could be struck three or four times as fast. You made choices based on how many days you would be in a room, and how much access you might have. do you run spares now, or later? Does power need its own track or can it run with the signal. Ask me to set a room like that now after being out 5 years and I'd struggle. The principals are there, but the details are not anymore.

One thing remains, rushing forward always results in delays. I try to only work as fast as I can while still being able to ensure the job has been done right the first time. Doesn't always work, but rushing never does.
 
For learning ? NEVER go for speed ! Smooth , efficient and over time your speed will automatically improve. Going for speed can be dangerous with sharp things or guns !!
 
mete said:
For learning ? NEVER go for speed ! Smooth , efficient and over time your speed will automatically improve. Going for speed can be dangerous with sharp things or guns !!
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Agreed. In fact, when away from the sidewalks, the clock is a minor factor. Sure, there are times when tasks must be accomplished quickly, but speed is seldom paramount. Efficiency, like speed of which it is a component, improves with experience and practical knowledge. It would be a mistake to try for speed and efficiency when learning a new skill, IMHO.
 
I've found that while practicing it's best to go slow so you don't cut corners or get sloppy and that way when it really matters its muscle memory and just comes naturally
 
Never be in a hurry to make a mistake.

It's only in the Western world that speed is a virtue. We would all live longer and happier if we'd destroy clocks.

Efficiency will come with practice and elimination of unnecessary movements. Learn the skill and spend time refining it.
 
Danke42 said:
Or; slow is smooth, smooth is fast.
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That's how I learned it.

My son is a young pitcher. I tell him to let the speed happen naturally. Don't push for it, as that is the path to injury.

Repitition is the key. Of course, you need to repeat the right thing.

Good: Practice makes perfect.
Better: Practice makes permanent. (Practice wrong, play wrong)
Best: Perfect practice makes perfect. (Taught to me by Klaus Gerhart, my Austrian ski instructor for many years when I was a kid)
 
"Practice makes perfect."

but on the other hand if you have perfected too many primitive techniques you might be making life unnecessarily hard on yourself.

"There are no big jobs only small machines."
 
My employer believes in training and I have to sit through many boring classes that have little or nothing to do with my job. I try to make the most of my time and be respectful to the speaker. By doing so I occasionally get rewarded with a useful bit of information. One class last year discussed knowledge vs skill. They defined skill as a physical activity with several steps that was accomplished with little or no conscious control. I did not understand this at first but now do. If you do something over and over it can reach the point where it is done proficiently without thought. A good example is tying your shoes. It is a physical activity with several steps that most of us do every day without a second thought. If you have been cleaning fish and game for over 20 years you have probably reached the level where those tasks have become skills. To me being able to do a task well and safely is more important than being able to to it quickly. I have skills that I do quickly with little thought but those have been acquired over a lifetime of learning. I think being out and doing what makes you happy is what's the most important. If we're ever on a stream cleaning fish side by side don't look down on me for taking 2 beers worth of time to clean a mess of trout, I'm having fun when I do.
 
I agree that efficiency comes with practice over time and you will speed up at things you do often. I recall a quote from Mors K about knives in which he states something to the effect of, "a good bushcraft knife should be able to produce a net needle in "x" minutes." That struck me funny as I have never had an urgent need to make one, nor have I ever made more than one at a time. I never looked at a small carving project as a timed event. When it comes to cutting tools you rarely get points for speed but may get stitches real fast.
 
If it is something that we enjoy doing, why rush thru it??? John:D
 
Is it fluent in your hand
Can you problem solve
Is your work tidy
do you take pride
If you think you are to slow, then practice some more

As a Master of your trade, then time does not matter
It is your choice
 
My first deer of the season is never as fast as my last. One season I quartered 34-35...

Skill, knowledge and physical abilities all play a part. Years that I spend more time in the gym sure do make working those deer over easier/faster/more fun.
 
In all my years of working in commercial kitchens this perhaps was one of the hardest lessons that you can't teach greenhorns. Learning to do something right is more important than looking like you know what you're doing. Only repetition can build muscle memory.
 
pict said:
I agree that efficiency comes with practice over time and you will speed up at things you do often. I recall a quote from Mors K about knives in which he states something to the effect of, "a good bushcraft knife should be able to produce a net needle in "x" minutes." That struck me funny as I have never had an urgent need to make one, nor have I ever made more than one at a time. I never looked at a small carving project as a timed event. When it comes to cutting tools you rarely get points for speed but may get stitches real fast.
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Mors is big on timing, the Try Stick and fire building being skills of high expectation, especially for instructors. He busted me on it once, so I wrote an article about how speed matters (link below). Obviously our military is big on speed drills for obvious reasons, but it has been around in bushcraft for sometime too such as the water boil.

http://masterwoodsman.com/2014/speed-matters/
 
Sometimes I feel good just being able to accomplish a task. :D I tend to go with the smooth is fast. Repetition creates efficiency which increases speed. Also there is a big difference between doing something for fun or doing it as a job. Good article abo4ster.

The mention at the beginning of the thread of catching 3500+ muskrats in a trapping season is almost hard to fathom. You would need both speed and efficiency to skin and process all those rats. I can imagine some very long nights. Then you have flesh and stretch them....
 
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Practice :D
 
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