Subject: Preventing sloppy (careless) errors in work
Date: Thursday, February 17, 2011 10:06 AM
To: ...@gmail.com

There're two reasons for errors: technical and mental. Technical reason is inefficiency and 
unfamiliarity with the work being performed. The only cure is to educate more, practice it more 
times, and study. But most of the human errors are due to mental sloppiness. The work was easy, but 
you just slipped, tripped, overlooked something simple. The cure comes from attention and mental 
focus. My way to achieve that is to imagine a dangerous situation I am currently in, such as 
driving a big truck on icy road near a cliff. Your brain is tense, because you know your life is in 
jeopardy. Make it, or die! With that in mind, you do the work with the maximum attention, and you 
check the work in each step before and after you do it. As a tech lead (or manager in your case), 
you would double-check your coworkers' work after they finished their part and probably have gone 
to the other room for entertainment. But you'll need to sit there checking and contemplating 
possible ways of alternative check on their as well as your own work, until your confidence tells 
you it's done. Believe it or not, you will find mistakes during this period. I personally did 
multiple times in the last few months of my work at eBay.