Comment by TJIC4 on Cached Thoughts · 2007-10-15T02:08:28.000Z · LW · GW

There was a wonderfully illustrative story which I thought I had bookmarked, but couldn't re-find: it was the story of a man whose know-it-all neighbor had once claimed in passing that the best way to remove a chimney from your house was to knock out the fireplace, wait for the bricks to drop down one level, knock out those bricks, and repeat until the chimney was gone. Years later, when the man wanted to remove his own chimney, this cached thought was lurking, waiting to pounce... As the man noted afterward - you can guess it didn't go well - his neighbor was not particularly knowledgeable in these matters, not a trusted source. If he'd questioned the idea, he probably would have realized it was a poor one.

That story was published in Fine Homebuilding a few years ago.

I happen to know because...I was the idiot who tore down a chimney from a bottom on the advice of my neighbor, and after telling the story to some acquaintances at a timber framing class up in Vermont and being told "you should write that up and send it to Fine Homebuilding", I did.

I've got a copy of the story hanging off my blog.

Anyway, love the blog. Keep up the good work.