Jim: I believe the chronlogy went something like this: Original message at: 1/12//02 5:15:06 PM Joe Garrett wrote: "... I would like to go on record to say that I do not pray to the dollar God..." in response to which at: 13/01/02 5:01 AM Jim Bryant wrote: "...OH? I suppose you give your work away? Why do you work on those thingees that other techs choose not to? Simply for the love of it? And do you lose money on each project?, and you never look for more efficient ways to do things?.................Money God indeed Joe...I don't know where this came from..." Ridiculing his position through sarcasm (it seemed to me). So at: 1/13/02 7:13 AM David Love wrote: "I read Joe's comments to say that he didn't worship the dollar to the extent that he compromised the quality of his work or his enjoyment of it. That is a far cry from giving the work away for free. I personally agree with him. I have followed many techs on jobs where it seemed that they were so concerned with making their "hourly" that they left a sloppy mess behind. Ironically, most of these types of jobs I followed were, in my opinion, underbid for the time really required. I imagine that the techs found themselves in a position where they weren't earning enough money for their time so their poor choice was to leave it undone or sloppy. In these cases, it would have made better business sense in the long run to give the balance of the work required away for free. By not doing so, they lost the customer and gained a "don't use that guy" referral. In spite of what some people are saying vis a vis this topic, quality work takes time. People should learn to calculate more accurately what it really takes to do excellent work, charge accordingly, and don't look back if some slob underbids you. If you find that you underbid the project and can't get the customer to pay more, you will be better off doing the work anyway and learning for the next time. You'll make more money in the long run, earn more loyal customers, and feel greater sense of satisfaction with the work you do." (developing the idea a bit) In response to which at: 1/13/02 12:52: Joe Garrett wrote: "...Mr. Bryant's bash was unwarranted IMHO. It seems the only time he posts is to slam someone, who is trying to make a point and it hits his "hot" button. ( I certainly did not wish to bash anyone with my comments, but rather to cause some of the "speed tuners" to reflect on the concept of "Speed" vs "Quality"..." Arguably the casting of an aspersion. a few more babble, babble, babbles And my final response (I thought) at: 1/13/02 3:58 PM David Love wrote: "Since my name keeps getting dragged around on this thread it would be nice to bring it to a close. My only point was that focus on speed and profit at the expense of quality is a recipe for a short career. The casting of aspersions in making or supporting that point is unwarranted as is attacking someone's motivations for why they choose to work on certain types of historical pianos." An attempt at concilliation To which the reply came at: 1/13/02 5:28 PM Jim Bryant wrote: "Yeah I agree but it would be nice if you would correct your remarks first." Judging by everyone's testiness, maybe business isn't as good as it should be and concentrations on speed, profit or quality are not making much difference??? (Tongue removed from cheek) You say potato, I say potahto, let's call the whole thing off. You know it's so tasteless to have to quote oneself. David Love
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