Ever since hearing about point-and-call, I've started using it in the kitchen when turning on the stove. I used to destroy one or two pans a year by turning on the wrong burner, but it's now been about a year and a half and I haven't screwed it up yet.
The knobs are labeled with a terrible little glyph meant to indicate which is which, and I've supplemented this with plain-english Brady labels "front left", "front right", etc. Now I speak the words above the knob, and point to the burner. It felt goofy at first, but now it feels normal, and like I'm tempting fate if I skip it.
I'm curious how exactly you managed to destroy pans. I've never destroyed a pan in my life, and take no particular precautions - is this a common thing? Is this more common with non-stick stuff or something?
The non-stick ones especially, but even plain metal pans will warp if they get hot enough. And then they don't sit flat on the burner, which might not matter on a gas stove, but contact with an electric burner is pretty important.
Not sure how it is in other countries, but don't the knobs when going left-to-right always correspond clockwise to the burners, starting at the lower left? And the oven knob is to the right?
My four knobs go front to back. I don't know what order they're in - the glyphs are fairly readable to me. I've seen this arrangement plenty, it's not unique.
The knobs are labeled with a terrible little glyph meant to indicate which is which, and I've supplemented this with plain-english Brady labels "front left", "front right", etc. Now I speak the words above the knob, and point to the burner. It felt goofy at first, but now it feels normal, and like I'm tempting fate if I skip it.