Break it down

I’m not a complicated person, even if I give the impression otherwise. I’ve been labeled many things some flattering, many, not so much, and mostly due to the breadth of knowledge I have attained. Knowledge hard won at expense of personal time and in many instances, skin, sweat and more than a few drops of blood. (As the scar tissue across my knuckles and forearms can attest.) My personality is fickle about details; I have to know as many facets as I can glean on a subject. It has caused issue in the past because I can get downright anal about things. I’ve been called ‘intense’ more times than I care to think about.

But really, that intensity is directed towards one end: simplicity. Alternatively it could be frugality. Money and I are not exactly easy acquaintances, so more often than not, I am trying to find ways to do things on a bandaid and shoestring budget. The last 10 years have been a rampaging bull in the educational department for me. I’ve wandered across so many different aspects, disciplines, skill sets, and base knowledge, that looking back at it, I feel drained. Yet when I think about what I have learned, I get charged up and want to do even more.

I’m no expert on any one thing. I won’t ever likely be such either. But there is one thing I am VERY good at: getting to the nut of a problem and finding simple solutions. I don’t even need all the details, just the critical ones. I have an intuitive nature and It works for me. Example: we had a car come into one of the shops I worked at wayabackawhen. Guy sometimes couldn’t get the car out of park, and it wasn’t consistent. I told him we would look, but if we couldnt duplicate the problem,,,,

Anywhoos, I pulled the car in and let it cool down (intuition said to) and did some other stuff for an hour. Then, checked to see. Blammo, locked in park, nothing obvious either. I yelled over to the other guy working “hey! Does this car have its brake lights on?”

“Nope”

I reached down under the column, found and jiggled the harness at the brakeswitch. “Dude, brake lights just came on.” And the car was able to be shifted out of park. Solution, one new brake light switch. No wild searching in Alldata or other data bases for recalls or TSBs (technical service bulletins) just a gut feeling that the problem was so simple as to be hiding in plainview.

Simple.

Intuitive.

What every engineer learns over years: how to keep it as simple as can be, no matter how complex ‘it’ is. Why put in a screwjack engagement when a simple lever will do? Just as an example.

Well, all that K.I.S.S. principle is part and parcel for drives me.

I learn the complicated stuff, but always find myself falling back on the simplest solutions.

So where am I going in all of this? It came down to something I overheard in passing. “People on the fringe are always looking for simple living because they fear a collapse ” spoken by some leftard that thinks collapse is impossible. (Which shows some of what divides this country, at least when it comes to how each side ‘thinks’) Yes, I want simple. Simple to build, simple to maintain, and simple to repair. Its not even a matter of frugality, because there are times where simple is downright hard to find and therefore, expensive. Find an old scythe thats still usable and you’ll likely spend just as much on it as a new in the box Stihl line trimmer. One requires fine tools and fuelmix to maintain, the other a file and sharpening stone. Both will wear your ass out in an afternoon under the sun, and yet one can actually render a usable product other than just mulch. The scythe can render hay/straw for gathering to be used for all the uses of such; animal feed, bedding, insulation, or garden covering.

Break it down.

Fact of the matter: I’d rather be on the fringe, living simply and wrong, than running in the mainstream, complicated and dead wrong.