At work, Darin was talking about watching a piece on Nova about Antarctic explorers
and he related a quote he really likes: “Adventure is a sign of
incompetence.” This was used in a work context, about how really our
lives should be boring and when they are thrilling things are all
screwed up. That led to a hunt for who made the quote, which led me
back to the page for the Nova episode. I wished I had seen it – I’ll
have to check for repeats. Here is a quote from the page in just this
vein – substitute the context of mountain climbing and exploring for
delivering one’s products in business and I’m all over this philosphy:
There is a quote I think about all the time when I’m climbing or on
expeditions. It’s by the great polar explorer Vilhjalmur Stefanson:
“Adventure is a sign of incompetence.” Stefanson was a guy who bragged
that he never had adventures. He said that if you have an adventure,
you’re doing something wrong, that if you really plan things out in
the vein of Amundsen, you don’t have adventures. (Now, having said
this, Stefanson relates sort of proudly how he almost got ambushed by
a polar bear. Stefanson had plenty of adventures!)