IT WORKS FOR ME…UNTIL IT DOESN’T

We’ve all seen that discussion, usually on social media, and rolled our eyes when someone flippantly dismisses criticism by saying “It works for me!”. Most of the time what they’re really saying is “I haven’t found the failure point yet”. And THAT is the the critical element! They aren’t using the proper criteria for gear selection.

In order to truly claim something works for you it means you understand its limitations, and have done an honest evaluation of your needs and skills. Which is why at best “It works for me” is an incomplete sentence, the second half of which is “because of these measurable criteria.”

In the same vein, if you’re interacting with someone who’s invoking “It works for me”, there’s the potential to use it as a teachable moment. Sometimes it’s worth asking how they came to that conclusion. Yes most of the time Dunning-Kruger will rear its ugly head, but there will be those instances where those questions will walk them down the path of discovery.

Not saying that it’s worth engaging with everybody, but if you’re going to create the opportunity to learn and improve.

The Suited Shootist
Alex Sansone took his first formal pistol class in 2009, and has since accumulated almost 500 total hours of open enrollment training from many of the nation's top instructors including Massad Ayoob, Craig Douglas, Tom Givens, Gabe White, Cecil Burch, Chuck Haggard, Darryl Bolke, and many others. Spending his professional life in the corporate world, Alex quickly realized incongruities between "best practices" in the defensive world, and the practical realities of his professional and social limitations. "I've never carried a gun professionally. I'm just a yuppie suburbanite that happens to live an armed lifestyle. Having worked in the corporate arena for the last decade, I've discovered that a lot of the "requirements" and norms of gun carriers at large aren't necessarily compatible with that professional environment. I also have a pretty diverse social background, having grown up in the Northeast, and there are many people in my life that are either gun-agnostic or uncomfortable with the idea of private gun ownership. This has afforded me not only insights into how we are perceived by different subcultures, but how to manage and interact with people that may not share your point of view without coming across as combative or antisocial. This is why my focus is the overlooked social aspects of the armed lifestyle."