"Competence begins with humility", indeed, and not just in the field of repairs. Humility is the gateway to a better, more rewarding, memorable life, for you and for those around you.
“Abandoning ‘whole language’ instruction in favor of phonics didn’t lower standards—it restored them, because phonics actually teaches children how reading works.” Absolutely! I was pedagogically abused by being taught in primary school by the “whole language” method. When I didn’t know how to spell a word and teachers told me to look it up in the dictionary my response “how can I look it up if I don’t know how to spell it?” Was not me being a smart Alec. I had never been taught the alphabet. In fifth grade when I figured out how phonetics work my reading scores soared! The entire rejection of phonetics by public schools is due to left wing bias against Laura Bush for her pushing phonetics as the foundation of reading skills. As a college teacher I was aghast at how many freshmen were entering university almost functionally illiterate .
I basically grew up in my dad’s machine shop, and have long been the guy everyone I know calls to assemble their IKEA furniture or that BBQ they just bought, and have spent many evenings and weekends installing or fixing things in my daughter’s house, so this really resonated with me. Good stuff!
As a do-it-yourselfer for over 60 years and a professional electronic troubleshooter for over 50 years, I concur. I have used my skills to overcome, or at least mitigate, some of my health issues. (how's your A1C, btw?) It frustrates me to no end that a large portion of people in our society simply cannot use common sense when it comes to basics like gender, for example. Equally frustrating is the draw to charismatic influencers peddling their wares, like climate change and the need for drastic, expensive measures supposedly to mitigate effects of carbon emissions. How they can't see that this endeavor enriches the wealthy investors of green energy so that they can enjoy their beachfront properties or fly their Gulfstream V's, is beyond me.
Your comment "Stop solving a problem with expensive and ineffective tools when you haven’t identified the real problem" hit a particularly personal chord this morning. As a retiree, I found that, in an effort to do all of those things that I've wanted to do, I have jammed my schedule with too many personal tasks. In the same manner that the government can't spend its way out of debt, I cannot complete the entirety of my self-imposed list of jobs. So this morning and before reading your blog, I followed my own advice and axed several to-do list items as being 9th or 10th level of importance in my life. I have zero influence on what goes on in DC, but at least I can get my own life in order.
“ enthusiasm without preparation” - the next Muslim Feast of Sacrifice that follows the Hajj (sometime this summer) thousands of Muslim men all over the world will get gored, or otherwise seriously injured, trying to sacrifice a cow or goat without having any butcher skills.
In order to solve a problem you first have to define it.
If half the country cant even define what a woman is, how do you expect them to fix immigration, health insurance, etc??
There is a big gap between "can't" and don't want to because it doesn't advance my agenda."
"Competence begins with humility", indeed, and not just in the field of repairs. Humility is the gateway to a better, more rewarding, memorable life, for you and for those around you.
"By their fruits ye shall know them."
“Abandoning ‘whole language’ instruction in favor of phonics didn’t lower standards—it restored them, because phonics actually teaches children how reading works.” Absolutely! I was pedagogically abused by being taught in primary school by the “whole language” method. When I didn’t know how to spell a word and teachers told me to look it up in the dictionary my response “how can I look it up if I don’t know how to spell it?” Was not me being a smart Alec. I had never been taught the alphabet. In fifth grade when I figured out how phonetics work my reading scores soared! The entire rejection of phonetics by public schools is due to left wing bias against Laura Bush for her pushing phonetics as the foundation of reading skills. As a college teacher I was aghast at how many freshmen were entering university almost functionally illiterate .
I basically grew up in my dad’s machine shop, and have long been the guy everyone I know calls to assemble their IKEA furniture or that BBQ they just bought, and have spent many evenings and weekends installing or fixing things in my daughter’s house, so this really resonated with me. Good stuff!
As a do-it-yourselfer for over 60 years and a professional electronic troubleshooter for over 50 years, I concur. I have used my skills to overcome, or at least mitigate, some of my health issues. (how's your A1C, btw?) It frustrates me to no end that a large portion of people in our society simply cannot use common sense when it comes to basics like gender, for example. Equally frustrating is the draw to charismatic influencers peddling their wares, like climate change and the need for drastic, expensive measures supposedly to mitigate effects of carbon emissions. How they can't see that this endeavor enriches the wealthy investors of green energy so that they can enjoy their beachfront properties or fly their Gulfstream V's, is beyond me.
Your comment "Stop solving a problem with expensive and ineffective tools when you haven’t identified the real problem" hit a particularly personal chord this morning. As a retiree, I found that, in an effort to do all of those things that I've wanted to do, I have jammed my schedule with too many personal tasks. In the same manner that the government can't spend its way out of debt, I cannot complete the entirety of my self-imposed list of jobs. So this morning and before reading your blog, I followed my own advice and axed several to-do list items as being 9th or 10th level of importance in my life. I have zero influence on what goes on in DC, but at least I can get my own life in order.
“ enthusiasm without preparation” - the next Muslim Feast of Sacrifice that follows the Hajj (sometime this summer) thousands of Muslim men all over the world will get gored, or otherwise seriously injured, trying to sacrifice a cow or goat without having any butcher skills.
Being able to see past first order consequences also helps a lot.