In the end, it’s not about the number, but situational awareness. Discover what the possibilities are and where the dangers lie. Use your estimates to sense the world around you and make visible the intangible and ineffable. Mark the areas you want to avoid. But whatever you do, do not fool yourself into believing that estimates are truth. Especially do not believe a simple number.
Our sailboat, when we bought her, had an electronic depth sounder that measured the water depth by bouncing sound waves off the bottom. In spite of this tool, we often ran aground. The tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay have a lot of shallow water, irregularly shaped and often unmarked. When the depth sounder showed ...
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