John and Edsel were friends who decided it was time to build their houses. They found adjacent lots where they would each build the house of their dreams. In this community, it was common for people to build a house as a way to transform from children to adults. Besides having symbolic meaning, there were practical considerations as well. A properly built house, that was approved by the building inspector, virtually insured health, money and a robust social life.

The first step in building the house was picking a building instructor to guide them through the process. Although the building instructor would not be actually doing any of the work, their guidance was critical to proper completion and subsequent approval by the building inspector. In this community, the home owner was required to oversee all elements of the project and the building instructor could only lend guidance.
John, by all accounts, was considered very pragmatic yet not deterred by social norms. He chose Jim, a virtually unknown building instructor, who had a reputation for building with a single mindedness that was unsettling to many people in the community. Many felt that his style did not give the home owner enough education to take care of his house in the future. His philosophy was to get the house built properly in the shortest amount of time so the home owner could seek additional knowledge on his own without the pressure of a half completed house on his mind. As Jim put it “once the house is built, it’s pretty much downhill from there. You will have the time to pursue the additional knowledge that enhances the look and feel of the house”

Edsel chose Pocahontas as his instructor. Pocahontas had a stellar reputation in the community as being an excellent teacher who was very thorough. One of the main differences between Jim and Pocahontas was it was understood that Pocahontas would not guide the home owner through the entire building process. After she was done with her initial teachings, Edsel would require a secondary building instructor to complete the process. Edsel was alright with this because it was believed in the community that doing it this way would lead to better overall results. It was more the accepted method of house building.

Before John and Edsel were to embark upon the building process, they were to take some classroom instruction led by their building instructor that would help them with this job. Jim’s style was to stick primarily with the information necessary to complete this task. Whereas Pocahontas wanted Edsel to know about a variety of things including the history of drywall, houses people built in other parts of the country as well as information pertinent to this task. Her philosophy was that people needed this additional information to be well rounded which, in turn, would serve to make their life richer. They finally completed their coursework and returned to the lots where the houses were to be built.

Jim was waiting for John so they could begin construction. Edsel found a note on his lot telling him that Rainbow would be his secondary building instructor and to report to the class room in one month.

John had some concerns, which he kept to himself, regarding jumping into the project seemingly unprepared. He saw that most people took Edsel’s route and that caused him some inner turmoil. Nonetheless, John and Jim dove headlong into the project. Everything seemed to be moving along well and when John would run into a problem, Jim would show him how to resolve it quickly without incident. Jim knew a lot about the building process and also had a lot of connections in the industry. He never hesitated when he had knowledge or resources that he could lend to the project.

John started to panic. He thought that this must be why Edsel was better off with the extra coursework. In the real world, no one would be there to lend this kind of guidance.
John asked “Why are you making this so easy for me? Wouldn’t I be better off figuring this out for myself?”

Jim said “Life is hard enough. But if you’d like, I can make things harder for you. I consider this part of the teaching process and also why I am being paid. If you want a lesson it could be surround yourself with people who are willing to help you reach your goals not those who are constantly trying to throw up road blocks. Also, appreciate when people take care of you.”
John was perplexed by this way of thinking because it was not what he was used to. In his community, it was the norm for people not to help others to the degree where it made their life easy. The people considered suffering a valuable part of the growing experience. “If things are gotten easily, appreciation is nearly impossible.”
Meanwhile Edsel was doing all sorts of coursework. He learned about plumbing, electrical, drywall as well as the history of building and ancient Indian adobes. He wondered how he would apply his knowledge of Indian adobes, but diligently did his coursework without question. He was concerned that his coursework provided very little hands on experience with power tools and dealing with contractors, but trusted the system.

Finally, Edsel was done with his coursework and returned to his lot of land. He noticed that John had completed his house and went to talk with him.
“How did it go?” asked Edsel.
“It seemed to work out. The house is very nice and, more importantly, the building inspector approved it.” John said. “How was your experience?”
“As you can see, I haven’t even started on the house, but I have lots of knowledge that will please the building inspector.” Edsel said. “I’m a little concerned about the $200,000 bill that my secondary building instructor gave me, but they have very nice low interest programs to pay that back.”

Again, John began to feel anxiety. It seemed like he avoided a lot of unnecessary time and expense by choosing Jim’s program, but he couldn’t help feeling that he was missing something. So, he asked Edsel.
“Are you glad you did it this way?”
“Obviously, I would like the house to be completed. But, I think once it is, I will have more education to live a richer, fuller life.”
John asked “Do you think your education regarding Indian adobes will ever be of any use to you?”
“What I learned from both of my instructors is that gearing my education towards only building the house will lead to a shallow and dull life.” Edsel replied. “This is the way most people do it.”
“My instructor told me,” John said. “that it is hard to think about anything else until the house is built properly and approved by the building inspector. He gave me countless examples of people, we mutually knew, who could think of nothing else than getting their house built and approved by the building inspector. He went on to point out until this was completely taken care of these people were socially useless because they were consumed with this project. He also went on to say that much of the information disseminated by the secondary building instructor was never brought up again in the home owner’s life. He said that his focus to build the house properly, in the shortest amount of time seemed the most logical to him. He, then, went on to praise Pocahontas and Rainbow as people with a noble commitment to their students.”

“Are you sure Jim knows what he’s doing?” asked Edsel.
“I know that my house is built, approved by the building inspector and that I have no debt from it. That’s about all I know. Jim’s ideas, while seemingly crazy to others, make sense to me.”
Edsel completed his house two years later and was very pleased with the results. John’s paranoia that he was going about it the wrong way gradually subsided over time and eventually he was glad that he did not take on the extra time or debt.

John and Edsel now get together with a variety of friends. The one’s that have not completed their house are still completely consumed with it to the point where they can barely think or talk about anything else. Those who have completed their house prefer to talk about kids, politics and sex.