NIH Factor

Projects evolve as they go on. They have an organic quality. The slab door on the front morphs into a raised panel door, or the plain arch now has a aglet hanging in the middle. The bookcases that I'm making for the living room changed over breakfast yesterday. The two lower units with the doors in the center will now be breakfronts. They will stand two inches further out into the room than the two outside units. There is no problem with that other than the fact that I had already cut wood for them.

As a result, I was a little more resistant to the change than I should have been. That is especially true now that I've thought about it for a while. The change would class up the whole look of the project. That stubbornness is just a part of my character. It has its good points like when I refuse to give up on a project no matter what happens. For example, last summer, I converted all the hot water heat lines from PVC to copper. It turned out to be much larger than I thought it would be. It took me three months of pulling off baseboard, and crawling under the house, and sweating joints to get it done. At times, I would have liked to walk away from it, but I'm too stubborn to say that a project is too big once I've started it.

The downside of being stubborn is I resist change for no reason at all other than that it is change. In science and engineering, it is called the NIH factor. It stands for Not Invented Here. It will affect whole companies that steadfastly refuse to adapt superior technologies which will save time and manpower simply because they did not think of it first. I have always been disdainful when I have seen it in other people or companies. It's hard to admit that it is a part of my character as well.

The upshot of all this is that the bookcases will have a breakfront and they will look better as a result.