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Never Ass-U-Me

By Peter Lloyd

“Never assume,” I heard the man scold his partner, “it makes an ass out of u and me.” The scolding abruptly ended the argument and made everyone around the scene uncomfortable. Happily I’ve not heard that too clever aphorism again. But recently I found a medical news story that illustrates the value of this crude call to skepticism.

You’d think that hands-free faucets would reduce the germ count where they have been put in use. Turns out that a hospital found the opposite to be true. A story in in Science News, Hands-Free Electronic Water Faucets Found to Be Hindrance in Infection Control; Manual Faucets Work Better, Study Shows, reports how the Law of Unintended Consequences worked its way, as it always does, into the picture.

My first assumption, as I read the story, was that the money-saving water-flow preset, which cut water consumption in half, probably had something to do with the infection increase. In fact, the complex electronic-eye mechanism might have been the culprit. Says the article, “They suspect that the valves simply offer additional surfaces for bacteria to become trapped and grow.”

I also assumed that someone decided not to assume the new faucets reduced contamination and ran a before-and-after study out of scientific skepticism. But as I read further, I learned my second assumption was wrong as well. The tests were initiated, “to determine how often and for how long treated water needed to be flushed through the hospital’s taps to keep Legionella and any other bacteria at nearly undetectable levels.”

Opportunities to assume pop up everywhere and all the time. That’s why every conscientious creative should keep the Never Ass-U-Me warning, as simple minded as it sounds, always in mind. Make it your phone ringtone. Paste a Post-It to your monitor screen. Tack a sign up on that cork bulletin board I assume you hang on your office wall.

Peter Lloyd is co-creator with Stephen Grossman of Animal Crackers, the breakthrough problem-solving tool designed to crack your toughest problems.
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