Refining Your Compass

We are bombarded with information at every level in every direction. We are surrounded by every topic, within our interests and outside of them. Our personal imperfect map and compass, which guide us, are shaped by our own desires, knowledge, and experience. When we find worthwhile mentors and peers, our path can become much more clearly defined and efficient.

I took the Tactical Anatomy Instructor course. This course has been on my radar for some time due to feedback and guidance from people I greatly respect and listen to. Every bit of the course clicked; it made sense, and it fit perfectly within my personal frames of reference and knowledge. It reinforced and refined many of the concepts I already understand. If a low-information gun owner who lives by bad advice with minimal understanding and experience with terminal ballistics took this class, there is a good possibility they would dismiss a lot of the content.

I recently watched a video by a well-known instructor with an impressive resume. Many viewers of the video scrutinized his actions negatively. When I watched the video, I saw solutions and answers to common problems. The video provided a good reference for me on a specific issue.

I have seen a lot of ballistics content that is praised by the masses, but I only see questionable conclusions shared further by those masses as fact.

My personal journey began in ignorance, and later evolved into self-reinforcing ignorance that I thought was knowledge. I thought I knew the answers. I held tightly to concepts that sounded right based on my flawed understanding. This changed when I invested my personal time and money in professional training (beyond agency-provided training) from vetted sources. This took humility to accept that I did not know what I thought I did and the necessity to become open to new ideas.

The difference between my journey and that of the masses is that I have sought training and insight from people whose knowledge has proven true and accurate. The information we want is readily and freely available if you seek it, are honest with yourself, and are open to it. This is the opposite of seeking clout, being influential, or worrying about opinions.

Looking back on how my business, Primary & Secondary, has evolved, it has provided a shortcut on the map and a compass for people seeking truth in firearms, equipment, mindset, and training through open discussions, podcasts, and various content.

For example, most people are wowed by ballistic gel testing videos because they don’t understand what they are seeing. They see massive cavitation, they see the whole gel block jump, they see the projectiles turning in the gel – they make conclusions based on their assumptions or what they inaccurately understand. When you understand what is occurring, it is no longer magical but data, and you omit the irrelevant. That cavitation in gel doesn’t matter; that block flying off the table doesn’t provide any useful information beyond that they should have strapped the block down; the projectile didn’t turn- the block moved while the projectile traversed through. How do I know this? Training, study, and discussion with people who have a better understanding.

Accurate understanding is rarely the result of simply consuming more information; it comes from humility, quality mentorship, professional training, and the willingness to challenge your own assumptions, which is why trusted communities and vetted sources are so valuable.