January 18, 2020
Do you know how tall you are?
When people ask you how tall you are, what do you say?
If someone asked me my height, I would say “six one” but... that’s probably not exactly true.
The fact of the matter is, I am not actually sure how tall I am. There are several variables at play. For example...
- The last time my height was measured was at my annual physical, which was about a year ago. As an old fart, it’s entirely possible that I’ve gotten shorter since then 😜
- The nurse who took the measurement wasn’t overly concerned with accuracy. I remember asking her whether I should take off my shoes, and she said “it didn’t matter”. I don’t remember if I did or didn’t remove my shoes. She also didn’t check that I was standing up straight, or that the part of the height rod that sits on your head was exactly on the top of my noggin.
- In the US it’s extremely common to round one’s height to the nearest inch. So unless I’m precisely 6 feet and 1 tall, there was up to a half an inch of rounding going on.
- She measured my height on a beam scale with a height rod, which means that I was standing on the scale platform during the height measurement. The scale platform moves up and down and is presumably subject to wear and tear. I did not ask when the scale was last serviced, or how recently the height rod was checked for accuracy, or what the manufacturer’s tolerances are for the scale.
I could go on, but hopefully I’ve made the point that I don’t know exactly how tall I am.
Here’s the thing...
I’m not a nozzle in a rocket engine. In almost no case does it make sense to go to the trouble of measuring my height exactly.
Measuring human heights to the nearest inch (or centimeter) is good enough for practical purposes.
It’s the same with determining your perspective client’s perceived value in The Why Conversation.
It doesn’t have to be exact. It just has to be close enough for practical purposes, which in this case would be to set a price.
Yours,
—J