Why I avoid guys like me...

I'll be honest, given the chance to talk with someone just getting in to sailing, boat building, and cruising or someone with a lot of years of experience... I'd rather talk to the newbie.

Newbies do have, shall we say, a lot less baggage then someone who has been involved with the sailing gig for any length of time. Sure, those new to things in "Cruiserland" and the mayhem that is boatbuilding ask a lot of dumb questions and make bonehead mistakes, but they also ask new and interesting questions from time to time and those are often things of genius. As far as bonehead mistakes go, without failure there is never any progress. The big difference in simple form is newbies often ask "why" and "what if" while the older establishment can't think past words like "because" and "it's impossible"...

The thing is, we'd all be a lot better off if we got past the same old same and put ourselves into that newbie mindset where failure is an acceptable possibility and do something interesting in the process.
 
Listening to Bonnie and the Beard

So it goes...