Date:         Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:17:49 -0700
Reply-To:     Mike Elliott <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Mike Elliott <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Are Today's Young People Mechanical Nitwits?
Comments: To: John Bange <jbange@GMAIL.COM>
In-Reply-To:  <6da579340808151838w66249af3hb450502ec4ef67a4@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

"Engineer bone" -- here I ask my sniggering inner adolescent to shut up
so I can tell you that this is a perfect term for what engineering types
possess that the Others do not. They may know how to hedge a fund or
close a deal or mashie a niblick, but I shine when it comes to knowing
how a flashlight works. And I like it this way.
--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Utility Trailer: Ladybug Trailer, Inc., San Juan Capistrano
KG6RCR

On 8/15/2008 6:38 PM John Bange wrote:

>>  I do not have a single friend who works on their own cars. Not a single one. ... I'm revered as some sort of mechanical genius, though I make no such claim myself.
>
> I think it's always been about the same, the ratio of "fixers" vs
> "knowlessmen". Seems to me that the gulf between them has just become
> more apparent because complex devices have proliferated such that they
> fill more of our lives than they did (say) 30 years ago. I am the only
> technically competent person among my friends, so I'm constantly
> fielding questions and fixing stuff for them. Everything from cars to
> computers to electrical wiring. I've known them all for 30+ years, and
> they're all competent in their chosen career fields, have degrees,
> etc. They, like most people, just don't seem to have the "engineer
> bone". I can't look at anything mechanical or electronic without
> wondering how it works and eyeballing it with an eye for details that
> might inform me about it.Everyone else, it seems, just pushes the
> button on the DVD player and watches the movie. Me, I have my Torx
> driver out so I can look inside my new player to see what kind of
> microcontroller it uses...
>
> --
> John Bange
> '90 Vanagon - "Lastwagen"
> '90 Vanagon GL - "Wiesel"
>