"You follow your sequence with  precision . Not only does the  repetition     yield  consistency, but it works to encourage speed. As your body  acclimates  to the motion you naturally do it more quickly. You begin to move like a machine without having to even think about it, and the less you have to think about it, the more brain space you have to look into the future. Like a skilled  billiards  player you begin anticipating your next move, and the one after that,  so that when one task is done you  don't  waste time trying to figure out what follows. You move seamlessly between activities  shaving precious seconds off of the overall time it takes to complete your Mise en Place."

 

"Cooking is an exercise in kinetic awareness, economy of movement and mastery of the senses.  You can smell when a sauce is scorched. You can hear when a fish is ready to come off the plancha. You must trust these senses to help you through the night. Your whole body must remain active. No matter what recipe you know or how much experience you have, each piece of fish in each pan presents a unique set of circumstances to which you must react. Based on the sensory information at hand and in the moment. You must take something before you and make it lovely out of it. And while it might be the same thing everyday, its something new every second."

  This excerpt from the book spoke to me about why Upton Bass is so consistent in what we do, and how we can make so many basses per year with such a small crew.  We've been doing this "dance" now for almost 10 years as bass makers and we've made over 1000 basses at this point. Our "kinetic awareness, economy of movement and mastery of the senses" has shaved precious time from our day where we  don't  sit around wondering what's next.  We walk in in the morning, and we know what to do...and what to do after that.  And while "things" happen all day long that pull you away from the task of building basses (phone rings, customer walks in...or that piece of wood you have two hours into just revealed a check and it goes on the burn pile), you're always focused on the goal, and you  adjust  on the fly and get right back on track.

There is another quote I love, "Amateurs practice until they get it right, professionals practice until they can't get it wrong."