Home Guru: The Devil’s in the Details, But I’m Not There With Him
It’s been a long time since I first heard and understood the meaning of the phrase “the devil is in the details,” which I really didn’t start to use until I became a homeowner. Since that time, I’m reminded of it practically every day.
Essentially its meaning is that it is often the small details that can prolong a task, or subvert it entirely. More significantly, it can make a well-intentioned person feel challenged and frustrated.
While I might pride myself on my ability to see the big picture with my assignments and consider myself creative as I approach them, the details tend to set up roadblocks for me. And the evidence of that jumps out at me at every turn.
My pet peeve is trying to understand the details with instructions for assembling or operating anything, from my power generator to a new gadget of technology. I don’t think the fault is all mine. I lay some blame on poor writing and editing, as I snidely try to guess the native tongue of the writer.
As an aside, have you noticed how some manufacturers produce just one instruction book for a variety of models and you have to guess which one you’re dealing with?
Kathleen Cruz, a friend and fellow realtor at Coldwell Banker, started in the business at the same time I did. In those early days, we all compared notes about what we did before we got into real estate, and I was most impressed with her former job as a sales representative at Sears. Cruz didn’t work in women’s clothing or housewares. She worked in the hardware department selling heavy duty tools, from chainsaws to electric generators, and she knew exactly how to set up and operate all of them. I stood in awe of her ability with heavy equipment and asked if it came naturally to her.
“I decided that if I was going to be selling tools, mostly to men, I had better know how they operate,” Cruz responded, “so I read every instruction book in the department.”
If I had been given the job of reading every instruction book in the department, I would have required therapeutic counseling. My more reasoned response was to make a mental note that whenever I had to learn a new process in the office, Cruz would be my chief reference source. Since then, I have asked her many times how things work.
Of course, there are those people who combine an ability to see the big picture while managing to grasp the small details at the same time. I tip my hat to them. I accept the way my brain is wired and I don’t worry about it, because I’ve found ways to compensate. For instance, when a homeowner asks me about details of any process or home improvement, I know when I need to seek an expert’s advice, the detail specialists I call them. Many of them will conduct a survey of the chore at hand free of charge with the possibility that he or she would be awarded the assignment.
But hope springs eternal. Thanks to modern technology, I have developed some remedial skills in dealing with details. If I am shown something that my mind detects as too detail-oriented, I take out my Flip video and record the process, so that I can refer to it in the future. Also, I create a note page on my iPhone that tells me step by step what to do in language I understand. Also coming to the aid of instruction-impaired people are streaming educational videos online.
While I may be optimistic that I’m improving my skills in this area, there is always a new challenge on the horizon. This week, I purchased an artificial Christmas tree with self-contained lights at Home Depot, not so much for its beauty but for the pictures on the box that showed that all I had to do was stick one section into another to build the tree from the base.
When I got home, however, there was a challenge in following the process from one section to the next. My nine-year-old grandson came to the rescue by simply reading the instructions, which by the way, required microscopic vision and understanding what needed to be done. Thank goodness that the detail-impaired gene is not inherited.
Bill Primavera is a licensed Realtor® affiliated with Coldwell Banker and a marketing practitioner who writes regularly as The Home Guru. For questions or comments about the housing market, or selling or buying a home, he can be reached directly at 914-522-2076.
