There are times in life when we all like to take the easy road, short-cuts, cut corners. Many times in life this is acceptable. Sometimes in life it's not, but works out anyway. Some do like to say, "its better to be lucky than good". That said, cutting corners usually entails doing something more risky, or skipping steps, and has a much high risk potential.
I would say that this is most frequently experienced when people are on long road trips to places they are ... sort-of ... familiar with. Not familiar enough to actually have a local map committed to memory, but comfortable enough to think one does. So, as one approaches there location, they decide that rather than take an hour to go the safe route, they're save 10 minutes by taking a short cut. How does this result? Frequently in getting lost and having a short-cut turn into a 30-60 minute detour, just to return to one's original location prior to this foolish decision.
So, in the world of carpentry there is a saying "measure twice, cut once." The idea being, follow a procedure, double check your work, take your time. An object can always be cut shorter, but not longer. So, this whole system is designed to be a check, to prevent stupid and irreversible mistakes. I have adopted many of these exact sayings into my life, and find myself using them as rules to govern many of my choices.
I bring this up now to make a special aside to some of these rules, and point out a crucial flaw. Years ago I was helping my father build our new garage. The foundation was all set and ready to go. We were moving onto our favorite step... Framing. Few tasks in carpentry are as satisfying. You get massive amounts of visual improvement for the amount of time spent, as well as it being the most fun aspect. So, we were each assembling a wall after making the first one together as a template. By assembling a wall I am referring to attaching the studs to headers and footers, basically making the walls' skeleton. Once assembled we could just stand them up in place and fasten them in.
So, with the first wall done together we each set out to make the remaining two. Following proper carpentry procedure, I measured every stud twice before cutting them. Then, I checked to make sure all the studs were of equal length before fastening them into the headers and footers. All in all, there was much double checking. So, with the frame finished we stood up each section, and upon completion of erecting the walls we immediately noticed that my wall... was 4 inches shorter than the other two...
Huh... Well, turns out, the rule of "Measure twice, cut once" is only helpful when you know the correct size you wish to be measuring. Otherwise, you can be very confidant that your project is consistently incorrect. So, while I still firmly support that double checking is valuable, and that one should take the time to do so, one should make sure that they know what is correct, before confirming that they are consistent.
