Brian Henderson wrote:

I was thinking about this last night as I was wrapping my
daughter's birthday presents.

When I'm woodworking, all of my measurements are very precise, all
of my cuts are dead straight and I worry about being a few
thousandths of an inch off and everything has to be perfectly
square. Yet when I was wrapping, so long as I cut the paper
reasonably straight and kind of square, I was happy. The corners
were sort of tight and as long as it looked decent, I had no
problem with it.

Is there anything else in our lives, as woodworkers, where we're
as exacting as we are when we're out in the shop?

Well, it's all about context. If you were in your woodshop cutting to
length a bunch of tomatoe stakes, I don't think you'd worry about a
few thousandths either way ;-) If you were a professional gift wrapper
then I'd suppose neatness and squareness would be a high priority.

Joe Barta