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Subject:Re: What is More Important? From:<neilson -at- windstream -dot- net> To:"Pinkham, Jim" <Jim -dot- Pinkham -at- voith -dot- com>, <richard -dot- melanson -at- us -dot- tel -dot- com>, "Techwr-l" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 15 May 2007 17:47:43 -0400
Accuracy is more important. At one time I decided to teach myself
piano tuning from a book. Three books, actually. One failed because
it lacked the necessary details. Another was full of impenetrable
prose, and the third was complete and easy to follow.
Unfortunately the clear one was technically wrong! I tried and tried,
using the method presented, and could not get the primary octave to
resolve. So I dug into the impenetrable one and got the correct info.
Viola! Oops, no, it wasn't a viola; it was a piano. Voila!
I've also had the opportunity to rescue projects where other writers
had "clarified" the material by adding incorrect statements. That is,
lies. Accuracy wins every time, if someone is going to use the material.
If it's documentation-by-weight, though, you can use (as I've said
before) lorem ipsum instead.
Jim Pinkham opined:
> My two cents -- there's not an acceptable answer short of "both." Poorly
> written documents may very well not get read. Or, if read, not
> comprehended. Or not comprehended well and fast enough. Inaccurate
> documents -- well, that could mean life or death or loss. Who wants to
> choose?
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