Spent a whole hour hanging a shelf wrong before I caught it

I was putting up a floating shelf in my living room in Austin. Measured twice, marked the wall, drilled the first hole and realized my level was off by a full quarter inch. Yanked the anchor out and patched the hole with spackle. Waited 20 minutes for it to dry then redid it all with a laser level I borrowed from my neighbor. Shelf is up now but that stupid patch spot is still visible. Anyone else have a fix for hiding small drywall patches without repainting the whole wall?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_joel28d ago

And that's just how it goes, everything in life seems to take three tries before it clicks into place. My theory is we learn by making the first mistake obvious, then the second one less so, til the third one finally works.

henderson.wesley28d agoTop Commenter

Used to think skill was just natural talent making things look easy. Never really considered how the failures before success are just part of learning the thing properly. Your take on the three tries thing actually makes a lot more sense now.

the_robin28d ago

Yeah, I've noticed the same thing with pretty much anything you actually want to get good at. First try you're just figuring out what you're even supposed to do. Second try you know the rules but you overthink everything. Third try your brain finally stops fighting it and lets you just do it. It's like learning to drive or even just cooking a new recipe. You burn the first one, the second one is edible but dry, and the third one actually tastes like something you'd order. Three tries really does seem to be the magic number for most things.