Precision - the value

It WAS an amazing day - or I should say it has been an amazing week for me!

Started from Sunday - Monday - Tuesday - Wednesday - today, Thursday - I have been meeting people from all around, different background, different generations (as local Chinese, we say '3 years = one generation', that's why I said 'different generations').

We talked about work, we talked about life, we talked about love, relationship, friendship, experience... and finally today - I came to a quick chat over SMS on 'value'. Thanks my dear friend bringing up this word and his long message indeed - that was SOMETHING!

The story began this morning, when I met a friend who is actually an artist + designser + drinker + my 'tequila partner' (once she put this term on me!). There we were talking about some designer work she did. I met her working partner as well. THAT chat has brought me some new thought indeed.

An artist, a designer - people whom you might think that they always have 'free mind', they want freedom, they have their own 'temper', they have their sensation, and sentimental moments. Well - that's what people think about me sometimes as well, although I am not really an artist.

I thought so too - there is the 'free mind', there is the creativity or freedom or 'space' these people want. Yes, we need 'space'. We need the room to think and to create. I always said that too.

Yet, after chatting with my friend and her working partner - I realized their work actually requires a high level of 'precision'. They have measurement, they have schedule, they have to follow all those - if the measurement is not precise or if they miss some numbers - OK, all everything could be screwed up!

Same here - even though I am not really an artist, and not designer - but I organize events. I couldn't afford to have a lot of variables, I have to pin down almost every details as far as I could. I need precision as well.

So there came the point - I then came up in mind my friend's name: 'Mr. Scientist' I called him. He is the one I truly think that he's a scientist. I do think he loves science - I do think he got his talents about science subjects (sorry, I still don't really understand what he studied... I knew the 'term' only which I'd better not telling here... just to avoid any embarrassing situation).

Just one short message saying that 'precision is an arts. Science is about precision, so it's an arts too!' And he was so nice to reply me even though I did believe that he was real busy at work. His long message told me quite something about how precise science could be! And I was told that 'precision' is actually the 'value' of his study!

THE VALUE.

I never thought that those are indeed something I would call 'VALUE'. I knew those are important - being precise is important. I took it for granted already - business should be precise and concise; reports or whatever documents (except legal ones, excuse me for such bias) have to be precise, so-called 'to the point'; my event logistics have to be precise as far as I could; despite the concept or artistic elements a designer wants, all everything has to be precise!

In fact, those are values as Mr. Scientist suggested! Those are just built-in values already. Values seem to be something out of question, that's the belief we have learnt. Interesting enough, I do believe my desinger friend, Mr. Scientist, and myself are not those really detail-oriented people, we love freedom, we love being casual sometimes, we don't really like working on tedious tasks - but we are all built-in with some kind of value - we strive for precision, although we are not detail-oriented.

Frankly, this idea sounds bit ridiculous and weird - don't you think there's contradiction? Read again - 'We strive for precision, although we are not detail-oriented'. Somehow, I think my friends and I were all pretty lucky - we managed to start working on something that requires high level of precision, which has been our value so far. Plus, we could manage that. Although we are not detail-minded, meaning we do not like working on tedious tasks, there are others who are talented at those indeed. I believe there's nothing right/ wrong or seniority! It's all about our values, our preferences, our talents and our roles & responsibilities.

I know there are some people who truly believe in their values (although they don't know that's actually 'value' - just like me, I wasn't thinking about the word 'value' for the precision I love), but turned out in reality, they have to put that aside, because they believe there is not the opportunity in front to present how valuable their 'values' are. Or simply, those values couldn't get them to a sound paycheck or good position at a company.

Well - if that's really the value we believe in. No matter what, we got to believe. It is such belief/ the value, which makes the difference.