Triangulating Turkeys
Bradenton, Florida, November 2024
One Thanksgiving Day, a data problem almost ruined our family feast.
When I stuck the meat thermometer into the turkey, it didn’t look like the temperature had changed much since I put it in the oven an hour earlier. The oven was hot, so I jumped to the conclusion that the thermometer was broken (it was not). It seemed like a solvable problem, so at 4:00 p.m., I jumped in my truck and made a run to the supermarket to buy a new thermometer.
To nobody’s surprise but mine, the grocery store was closed, and the parking lot was empty. Even the streets were empty. You could ride your skateboard down the middle of the street the whole way to the grocery store. I was the only person wandering around the streets of Huntington Beach. Nobody wants to be alone at this time, on this day.
So, in a last-ditch effort to find a working meat thermometer, I started calling my friends. After the first two calls went to voicemail, it dawned on me that, while my friends are the best I've ever had, showing up on their doorstep at 4:00 p.m. Thanksgiving Day wasn't a brilliant idea.
I returned home expecting everyone to be disappointed (like I was), but they weren’t. Right after I left, Kellie (my wife) borrowed a thermometer from our neighbor. It gave the same reading as our thermometer, so she checked the oven temperature and the cooking time. Taking all the data into account, she figured out that the turkey needed to cook another 45 minutes.
Instead of jumping to a conclusion like me, my wife triangulated the data.
This Thanksgiving Day, I plan to focus on just one metric: the number of people enjoying time together at our home, giving thanks. I’m thankful for you, readers of my newsletter, and I’m committed to sharing the very best, most helpful ideas and stories I can with you over the next year. I hope you’ve enjoyed it so far!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Zane