[PRCo] Maps in an imperfect world

[Fred Schneider]

I refrained from jumping into this subject until now ... now that my name was
mentioned.

If you learn anything in life, one of the more important lessons will be that no
one is infallible.  There are no published books out there without errors.
Magazines are not without flaw.  No maps are perfect (in fact most map publishers
incorporate numerous inconsequential errors to enable them to protect their
copyrights).  Ink doesn't make it correct.  It is an imperfect world.  It is
ruled by humans and humans all make mistakes. The best we can do is strive to
minimize the mistakes we make.

A very shrewd friend (Howard White, who co-edited Headlights magazine with me)
once pointed out that the difference between a good and a bad corporation was
simply the share of good to bad decisions ... he claimed a good company made
about 57 to 58% of the decisions right, and the bad one only made 53 to 54%
correctly.   Scary isn't it when you apply that lesson to the medical profession,
but doctors and nurses, like everyone else, are also only human.  I've met
excellent and inferior ones.  (Fortunately I've know a railfan / doctor since we
were in college together and he is great for second opinions and his thoughts on
the quality of my paid doctors.)  The chap who did a cardiac bypass operation on
me told me, "I'm not special.  I'm just a good plumber.  But I know which cases
to take and which to walk away from."

And before someone jumps on me, there are also errors in the PCC book series but
I understand from others in the business that the number was exceptionally
small.  But you will note that I listed PC2 compressors on the Baltimore Pullman
cars because I couldn't find the order ... I assumed and let my assumption make
an ass out of me.  BTC bought CP27s because of the initial bad experience with
PC1s on the St. Louis cars, but I didn't know it then.  And then there was my
accidental renaming of West Carson Street in Pittsburgh under a photo caption (to
West Ohio Street).  But we did try to make it as correct as possible.  The books
and magazines I did best were those I could reread six months or six years later
and they still sounded good ... I can still reread the PCC books and believe that
Steve and I did a rather good job.  A lot of what I've done doesn't hold up after
I've forgotten what I thought I said.

Have a great day fellows, and no more fights please.

Fred the Third (or whatever)

Macmarka at cs.com wrote:

> In a message dated 11/18/02 9:00:51 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> shadow at dementia.org writes:
>
> <<
>  Conversely, sometimes the labor of love has the problem of the artist's
>  proprietary interests interfering when you point out an error; They feel
>  as though you're picking at them.
>
>  It's a nice map.
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