Did you actually take him up on it and try running by feel at all? Because there's a middle ground here and Ray was pointing at it without saying it out loud. Every pick I do starts with the chart, then I walk my pads and look at what's under them, then I make the pick and listen to the crane while it comes up. If the boom flexes more than it should or the truck starts to lean, that's the crane telling you the chart missed something like soft ground or a slope. Six years in is exactly when you should be building that feel, because the book can't see the fill dirt or the old septic tank under your outrigger. So no, he wasn't showing off, he was telling you the chart is step one and not the whole job.