Ghost shifting? what's that?

I have an old clunker bike with a double, and a triple on my custom bike. My triple is a top of the line Campy gear set.

The disadvantage to the triple is there are SO MANY gears! do we really need that many gears?? honestly? So, as a result, the learning curve is longer, i've had the bike a year and I'm still figuring out the optimal gears. The one thing I'm real good at is my granny gear. if i had to settle for something smaller there, I'd be miserable. My bike shifts so wonderfully, I don't see that there is a problem with the three chain rings, it shifts a lot better than my other bike... but i might be comparing apples and oranges here.

But then i get on my clunky bike (it might be a 10 speed, come to think of it) and it grinds and smacks and I still don't use all those gears either.
I hope this information is helpful to someone. I'd buy another triple in a flash. but I'm fervently hoping that someone figures out a better way to do it. (and no, I don't think a fixie is the answer!)