Still Marginally Competent, Still Happy

I re-read The Peter Principle about once a year, just to check in to see if I’ve hit my level of incompetence.

Ironically, it was almost exactly a year ago that I wrote about my last reading here.

Here’s what I wrote in 2009.

Recent research has validated the veracity of The Peter Principle, if this Forbes article is to be believed.

And when it comes to work, I’m still mostly happy.

Have NOT reached my level of incompetence working with Fluor.

HAVE reached my level of incompetence working with BYU-Idaho.

HAVE reached my level of incompetence writing novels (I’m struggling to edit, though I think by trial and error I may be getting better at it). Though this could be a display of Substitution as discussed by Laurence J. Peter, wherein an incompetent person finds something he or she is marginally good at and pursues that above everything else. Maybe this shows I’m more interested in becoming an author than moving up that ladder at BYU-Idaho.

The Peter Principle, illustrated. Here, Tom shows he reached his level of incompetence, accepted demotion, became happy (watch the entire cartoon starting here):



And yes, overall, I’m happy about where I’m at. That’s got to mean something.

I’m noticing the Peter Principle slipping into other areas of my life. For example, this weekend Michelle got fed up with me putting off fixing the ceiling fan in our bedroom and asked for screwdrivers so she could fix it herself.

Male ego and pride meant once tools were fetched, I was fixing the fan, albeit in a foul temper. And nevermind that the last time I tried to “fix” a ceiling fan, I ended up breaking it further than it had been broken, to the point we had to buy a new fan. Level of incompetence reached.

This time, however, I took note of what I did beforehand so when the fan suddenly decided it didn’t want to turn anymore, I was able to retrace my incompetent steps and get the fan spinning once more – and this time, WITHOUT the significant wobble and noise that made it impossible for us to use the fan on its highest settings. No matter it took three times of disassembly and reassembly to get the fan working again. Maybe on that particular fan ailment, my level of incompetence has yet to be reached.

Another point: Level of incompetence not yet reached on putting shingles on a house. This house is taller than what we had in Sugar City and had the added complication of solar panels, but as the solar panels were taken care of by competent people, I had no troubles. I look at others in the neighborhood with roof hip joints and steeper roofs altogether and recognize if that had been my roof, I’d have reached that level of incompetence.

A corollary: Thursday, I spent nearly three hours trying to loosen two nuts holding the main floor toilet to the floor so I could tile the bathroom. Finally gave up, bought a Dremel, and cut the bolts. Levels of incompetence may be vaulted via acquisition of technology, though it’s highly likely that $100 Dremel will now sit idle and useless for years until another toilet bolt needs cutting. Escaping a level of incompetence can be expensive.