I was straining to listen to instructions as the store clerk pulled yet another bottle off the shelf and handed it to me in what seemed to be a never-ending pile of chemicals and shears. "I'd give the tree a good coating of this stuff this weekend if the weather holds," he says, pushing the brown half-gallon jug into my waiting arms. "What does it do?" I ask, sounding every bit as ignorant as I feel. "It'll trick the tree into thinking it is still winter for a few weeks beyond that last freeze that seems to occur late in April." The clerk says. What? Trick the tree? I've lived in Cedar City most of my life. For the entirety of that life, I was under the assumption that if you owned an Apricot tree in Cedar, you could expect a harvest about every seven years because, six of those years, the late frost of which he spoke would freeze the blossoms dead.
Twenty-two years ago, my wife and I bought an acre plus 1/3 lot in a subdivision designed to house animals. According to the homeowner’s association, we could own any animal except a pig. I felt the vague urge to buy an elephant and test the homeowner’s association's commitment to the "any animal" rule; however, Linda only wanted a place for her horse, barn, and dressage arena: a few chickens, barn cats, and a dog to round things out. You get the idea; I wanted an orchard and a garden. Unfortunately, the garden went to weeds years ago, and the orchard produced nothing but limbs for the first ten years.
Sawzall in hand, my son and I trimmed the apple trees this past weekend with a renewed commitment to making something of the orchard. The trees had produced an abundance of fruit the past few years; however, the fruit was wormy despite our best efforts, and having heard of something I could spread on the ground keeping my trees and fruit bug-free led me to our local ranch and farming store for instructions.
Unfortunately, we don't know what we don't know, and my lack of knowledge regarding fruit trees in my particular climate is one of the trillions of things I don't know. I don't need to know everything, but there needs to be a better way to learn what I should know (a general outline, at least) regarding a particular area of my life. Learning curves are steep, and it would be beneficial to have an available guide map to cover the terrain.
I thought about asking the clerk to list ten things I should know about owning an orchard in Cedar, but I decided to ask ChatGPT instead. "List ten things I should know about owning an orchard of apple, pear, apricot, and peach trees, including how to increase production and maintain a healthy tree population.” ^1 The response was the typical ChatGPT generic answers that I have come to expect, and it certainly didn't include the detailed knowledge I received from the clerk at IFA. But maybe that's okay. ChatGPT did give me a "general" guide map, including proper pruning and fertilizing, watering "deeply and infrequently" (which I'm not doing) "rather than giving them small amounts of water frequently" (which I am doing).
Next, I asked ChatGPT to "list ten things I should know about being a board member for a nonprofit hospital." I served as a board member for twelve years. The list ChatGPT provided would have been valuable to me as a new board member (we offered a similar list to our new board members during orientation and mentoring programs). How about being a new father? I'm not; however, the list would have provided a few bullet points where I could have concentrated my efforts better had I known what to expect. Salesman, husband, hiker, and homeowner? What are a few things I should know about the proper riding and maintenance of an ATV? A bicycle?
My "personal knowledge management" system needs to include a few more inquiries of a more personal nature, capturing a little more knowledge that hits slightly closer to home (pun intended) and not just ideas on note-taking, interest rates, and hot air balloons.
Written February 19, 2023
Footnotes:
ChatGPT. (2023). List ten things I should know about owning an orchard of apple, pear, apricot, and peach trees, including how to increase production and maintain a healthy tree population. OpenAI ChatGPT. (I asked ChatGPT how to provide a citation for itself).