Foreman told me to stop squaring with a tape, he was right

Worked with a guy in Columbus last month on a deck job. I was doing my usual pull the 3-4-5 with the tape. He watched me for a minute and said, "You trust your eyes more than your tool." Then he had me clamp a straightedge and check with a framing square. Took me three tries to get it true. Turns out my tape method was fine on small stuff but it was sloppy on the long spans. Been using the square method all week. Has anyone else had to unlearn a habit after a quick comment from a coworker?

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averywright22d agoTop Commenter

Man, that hits home! I had a buddy who installed cabinets for years and always leveled with a torpedo level, and one day his boss pointed out how his top drawers were all slightly off on the long runs. He switched to a 4-foot level and said it was like seeing his work for the first time. Sometimes it takes a blunt coworker to show you the better way.