What BFO are we missing?

The Blinding Flash of the Obvious (BFO's) is simultaneously exciting and frustrating. Exciting because this new insight is going to save some resource. Frustrating because you know you have wasted resources in the past.

For instance "a possible use of the hole in the handle is for utensils so you don't have to get the counter dirty." (Note: if you angle it over the pot, sauces don't drip on the floor.) I have been doing it wrong for over 50 years. I could have saved a bunch of paper towels. Why don't they teach this in school? I had to find it randomly on the internet. (Source: http://www.thisisinsider.com/why-do-pan-handles-have-holes-2017-5)

Now there is a business application to this...what BFO's have you not shared with your people? One problem with getting good at your job is you become an "unconscious competent." You don't waste brain cells doing things. You use the power of habit. It's the reason why you sometimes can't remember driving home. You did it by rote.

There are probably some good shortcuts you do but never shared with your people because you flying on auto-piolet. My dad was studying Eskimo tribesman trying to pick up tips for the military on cold-weather survival. He noticed the men would bang the side of the tent when they were sitting inside. He asked, "why?" They all gave him blank stares and said: "that's what you do."

In the morning my dad found big blocks of ice and compressed snow next to the tent which the tribe melted for water. What the tribe was doing was knocking the accumulating ice off the tent and getting a source of compressed snow (if you have ever tried to get water from melting powdered snow, you will realize how important this is).

Brilliant. But no one knew why until my dad pointed it out.

There is a fine line between micromanaging, stifling innovation and ignoring life's BFO's, but they pay us the big bucks to figure that out.