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Japanese Inspection

Everybody procrastinates. Some tasks that get pushed off don’t matter, it just gets done later. Some tasks that go over deadline result in profanities and bloody noses. But every once in a while, tasks come along that have an expiration date. As in, if it doesn’t get done by a certain time, it doesn’t matter.

You ever heard of a “Japanese Inspection?” Japanese Inspection, you see,

when the Japs take in a load of lettuce they’re not sure they wanna let in the country, why they’ll just let it sit there on the dock ‘til they get good and ready to look at, But then of course, it’s all gone rotten… ain’t nothing left to inspect. You see, lettuce is a perishable item…like you two monkeys.

What Big John was referring to was the fact that all he had to do was ignore Cole and Rowdy until they didn’t any fight left in them. Tasks can be just the same way. Eventually, the need for the task to be done just goes away, or starts to smell. The only thing that really matters is being able to tell the difference between the things that really need to get done, and the things that just aren’t important enough to get done.

Published Feb 11, 2010

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