Attempting the seemingly impossible and when to quit.
"Choose wood with no shakes, warps or knots!"
—my grandpa
We've all been in this position, one my maternal grandfather would describe "trying to make something with shoddy materials and broken tools". My most vivid recollection was back in my days as an IT trainer. It was a Monday morning, I was due to be running tech training at some borrowed training rooms in Nottingham. I got to work early enough to load a van with computers, monitors and whatnnot, ready for the day's acivities. I got to the training site (a local electrical goods store) and began unloading equipment, staged ready to put in the lift (training room was on th first (second to USians) floor of the building). At this point, someone managerial told me the lift was not working and that he'd assign some staff to help schlep stuff up the stairs. I had
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