Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of Treasure Beaches Report.
So if you like to party like a pirate, why not? Other than maybe not having that much cash to spend.
Assyrian swimmers: 2,900-year-old carving of soldiers using inflatable goat skins to cross a river
Recently a fellow that was a drone to drop fishing tackle used the same drone to deliver a flotation device to a girl that was in a rip tide and about to drown. It probably saved her life.
There are two messages there. One is, beware of rip tides. The other is to think about how you can use a drone.
I'm sure that treasure hunters will in the future be using drones in new ways.
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You've probably heard of the 80/20 rule. It is based upon the Pareto principle and complex statistics. In practice the numbers are not really precise, but the basic idea is that a large percent of the outcomes are determined by a much smaller percent of the causes. (For more detail see Pareto principle - Wikipedia) For example, in business, eighty percent of the profits might come from 20% of the customers, or 80% of computer problems are caused by 20% of the bugs (coding errors).
It doesn't have to be priceise but is one of those general principles that is worth thinking about - even as it applies to metal detecting.
As applied to metal detecting, consider that something like 20% of the sites produce 80% of the finds. That seems reasonable. A relatively small percent of the sites produce a relatively large amount of the finds. I've found that to be true.
If you think about it, you probably visit certain beaches over and over while passing up others altogether. You believe that some beaches give you a better shot. That most likely will come from your past experience.
Another application of the 80/20 rule might be that a small number of hunts produces a large proportion of your finds. I've found something like that in my experience. There are days that you do unusually well and make a lot of finds and other days when you pretty much strike out. A large percent, maybe something close to 80% of your finds might come from 20% of your hunts.
How about 20% of the detectorists producing 80% of the finds. Again, I certainly do not think that is unreasonable.
And a small number of finds result in the greatest value. It takes a lot of pennies and nickels to add up to your total take in terms of face value. I don't know how close to 80% that might be but it is worth thinking about.
I've addressed that one before when I produced a chart showing that most finds are low value. A small number of finds are high value and when you talk extremely high value finds, the number is very small - way less than 20%.
If you pay attention to what’s working best—where, when, and how—you can focus your energy on the most rewarding parts of the hobby. That’s the Pareto Principle in action!
Again, the specific numbers of the 80/20 principle isn't really the important thing. The general principle is simply that a small number of causes produces the largest number of results.
Consider both sides of it. If 20% of the causes produce something like 80% of the results, the other 80% of the causes produces only 20% of the results.
The practical side of this, regardless of how accurate the rule is, suggests identifying the most impactful causes and dealing with those. If a small number of causes results in the greatest part of the results, the idea is to pay attention to the productive things. If twenty percent of the beaches are producing 80% of the finds, you might want to maximize your time at those more productive beaches. But there are other factors to consider as well. A beach might be producing after erosion, but not after renourishment, for example. In the past I've described several factors I take into account.
Metal detecting math can help you a lot. It helps to have a good idea of the amount of time and effort expended in relation to the amount of success. The math of it is very telling. It is difficult to improve results without feedback, and analyzing results can be very helpful. That applies to many aspects of metal detecting.
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Here is the link for the article about that.
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There are two messages there. One is, beware of rip tides. The other is to think about how you can use a drone.
I'm sure that treasure hunters will in the future be using drones in new ways.
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Here is one of those older posts that I enjoyed reading once again.
That one describes and app that will let you track nautical vessels. It also talks about the history of post cards and one that I received. I enjoyed reading it once again.
One of the biggest problems I have with blogger is being able to find old topics and posts that I want to find. I did a poor job of using key words in the beginning and my blogs have so many posts that a lot of old stuff is hard to find when you want to.
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A sentence is like a keyhole. You see a door and notice a keyhole, but if you go up to it and peep through the hole, you get a glimpse of a whole new room. A sentence should tempt you to approach, peep through, and be excited about the little that you can see. Unfortunately, it takes me a long time to craft one good sentence, so I usually settle for something else.
I'm sure my old English teachers would fall over dead (if they hadn't already) to learn of my interest in language and writing, but maybe they'd just point to the abundance of mistakes.
I do sometimes make grammatical mistakes for effect, but most are the result of ignorance, sloppiness or laziness (something that wouldn't surprise my teachers).
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Chantal has moved inland and there is no other tropical activity on the NHC Atlantic map.
The Treasure Coast surf remains small. Nothing special with the tides either.
Good hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net