loading...

June 11, 2023

My Piano F#5 key stopped working… so what?

My Piano F#5 key stopped working… so what?

#5 is one of my piano 88 keys (I don’t name the keys, that’s the standard). Suddenly (for a lack of better explanation as of this moment), it decided to stop working yesterday.

Well, it is an F#. Not a big deal. I have 7 other F#s in 7 other octaves. The pitch is different, of course, but I still have 7 other F#s! Not that I use that key a lot… Not that I play piano a lot, either… Plus, it’s 1 in 88. That is, it only represents 1.1% of my total keys. Yep, not a big deal.

Until it is…

Now, I cannot play “Hotel California”, “With or without you”, “Take on me”, “Every breath you take” and others just like I want to! So yes, it is a big deal…

Well, I guess we sometimes underestimate the importance of that 1.1%, don’t we?

Let’s talk about that 1% in sports, starting with football. In this world of specialization, 1.1% of an NFL team can make a big difference. What if the long snapper is not around during an important match? (A long snapper is a special type of Center. He snaps the ball on the hike during a special team’s field goal attempt or punt). There is only 1 long snapper in a roster of 56 players (OK, that’s a bit more than 1.1%, let’s say 1.8%). This is a super specialized position that can make a difference between making your team score or risking losing the ball to the other team, as history has proven again and again…

A team usually has 3 quarterbacks, several runners and wide receivers, and so on. But there are no back-up long snappers on the roster, by the way. So when you lose it, you are disadvantaged…

Snapping is an specialization that few can master!

You can hear a great podcast from Stephen Dubner about the Long Snapper position at https://freakonomics.com/podcast/season-11-episode-24/ ( Why Does the Most Monotonous Job in the World Pay $1 Million?” ).

What about my manufacturing factory? Can 1 person disrupt the operations (I mean, by being absent…). It sure can! In a good Operating System, we have training and flexible systems to cope with contingencies and demand fluctuations, but every person is important for the team. We need to recognize and value that fact! We can say the same in a Sales Department, a Music Band and many other types of organizations.

Every member of the team is important. Even more if it is an specialized role. Let’s value that 1%, whether an specialized role or an F#!

As a bonus, here’s a great story about a blind kid with great spirit, long snapping:

Posted in Uncategorized
Write a comment