My last trip to Martha’s Vineyard, I had a house guest who’s a really good friend, Paul Minden. We were scheduled to fly back on Sunday, but the weather was really lousy. I personally enjoy flying in weather like that; it’s totally safe, and I enjoy it, but I asked Paul what his preference was. When he asked me if I wanted to fly on a bad-weather day because it was more challenging, I answered yes, definitely. He pointed out that perhaps my passengers would prefer the flight when I’m less challenged, and indicated he would prefer to wait for better weather. This exchange brings into sharp relief something that’s a constant in my life: If something’s more challenging, I seek it out.

After I relented and agreed to fly on Monday, when the weather was clearer, Paul was a little alarmed when he saw my preflight safety checklist on the airplane. He saw a list with only some of the items highlighted with yellow highlighter, and from his point of view, he supposed that these were probably the few things that I thought were important — and that I wasn’t going to bother with the safety checks I hadn’t highlighted. Which wasn’t exactly the case. I bother with the whole list, but the highlighted ones are the ones that are really important and the ones I have to do.

But Paul might have a point. I started hearing these concerns from my friends the day I had my first pilot’s lesson. The very first lesson, they take you around and show you the plane, and then you inspect it (that’s called, you guessed it, the inspection), and then you learn to fly the plane for the first time. So my guy spent like half an hour walking around the plane and showing me all the things you have to check before you take off. The whole time I was thinking, I’m not gonna check this ever again, not gonna check that ever again, and pretty much thought that what he was doing was way overkill. I immediately narrowed his list of 50 things to check before takeoff down to the five that I thought were most important. And I didn’t know anything about flying. It was literally my first lesson. I left that lesson and decided I should switch instructors. I needed to find someone I wasn’t so dismissive of, so I switched to this South American instructor who was kind of this wild cowboy. And I figured, if he’s checking it, it must be really important to check. He didn’t seem all that anal-retentive; he seemed kind of cavalier. But I don’t think I’ll ever live down my first lesson, and making up my own Reader’s Digest checklist. I know Paul will never let me forget it.

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Read — Chicken Coop Editing and Stark-Naked Script Meetings

Read — Doug Liman Blog: Running With Jake Gyllenhaal

Read — I’m Getting Hitched: Making a Commitment to Untitled Moon Project

Read — I’m An Action Hero?!!?! My Hudson River Rescue: Birthday Pie with a Side of Crash

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