I’m a checker. My dad was a checker and it just got passed along osmotically.

Here’s the rub: I still make plenty of mistakes even though I check.

My observation is this: There are people who don’t believe they have to check. My experience with many of them is as follows: They’re not lazy. They believe they have superior memories and consider that checking is a waste of time.

They’ve never taken the time to do the arithmetic on how many times their memory has failed them.

I believe that today’s instant communications (email, texts, IMs) illustrate the memory myth. Add in Apple’s auto correct and the mistakes get even more compounded.

We can get a pass for sending a mistake filled message to a friend or family member but here’s what I notice: This practice of thinking you don’t need to check carries forward and creates far more errors than need be in things more weighty than a Facebook posting.

Fact: Your memory is not as good as you think it is.

If you don’t think you need to check, check on what hubris precedes.

Take this holiday tip from Santa and you’ll go from “haughty” to “more precise”: Check it twice!

All the best,

John