Atlasman,

You keep citing that if people researched and did their homework BEFORE they step into the woods everything would be Honky-Dinky.

Let me ask you this.

Would you be as confident letting a Summa Cum Laude intern of medical school diagnose, and perform surgery on you even though he never entered into residency?

Lets say you had a choice over who would perform the operation, #1 would be our highly inteligent, overtly confident, top of the class intern.
#2 would be a quiet, middle aged, old school Dr. who graduated in the middle percentile of his class and has been buried down in the E.R. as the Trauma surgeon for the past God knows how many years?

I know who I' d want handling the knife!

Also, if you are so adamant in utilizing resources that would educate, enlighten, shorten the learning curve, or otherwise prepare you for future endeavors, you' ve managed to ignore one of the MOST important of Lifes lessons so blantantly pointed out throughout this thread.

Humility.

But that' s o-kay!

You' ll encounter it, guaranteed! With a little luck it will open your eyes and your heart.

That' s if it doesn' t cause a massive gag reflex....