It’s not what you know

Its what you know you don’t know, and even worse, the stuff you have no clue you don’t know.

Looking back in archives, seeing my old woodburner projects for heating the house, I didn’t know that I didn’t know about Rocket Mass heaters. Zero clue that such even existed.

I think that is the biggest boon of the internet era: that its much easier to discover the unknown unknowns.

Not that this has improved our lot that much, at least big picture. Kinda-sorta retro to that: too many willing to jump to the stage and claim expert.

Though, and this in my minds eye is another bonus, the title of expert has become something of an inside joke in most circles. The saying ” A Jackof All Trades, Master of None, is often more useful than a Master of One.” comes to mind.

Lord knows, I am no master of any one thing. I’m a daggum good welder, but I know there are so many aspects of the trade I haven’t ‘mastered’ to be able to claim that status. I’m pretty decent at Fabrication, and can come up with some unique stuff, but there are times where I revert to internet searches for solutions/inspirations.

And as an “Engineer”, I completely lack the one skill that should be pre-requisite: MATH. Designing a thing, I can visualize it and imperically figure out ‘yah, that’ll work’, and then I bust out the erector set to build a prototype, not the calculator and notepad. My limitations are those of a tinkerer, not an engineer. (some would say thats a strength as well, many engineers get hung up in the perfection state that tinkerers never learned.)

What I do know. If you want to learn something, find out what you already know, that is similar or related, and advance from there. Its really not that hard to find ‘something’ related, either. You wanna learn how to weld? You’ve played with glue in the past putting things together as a kid. Welding is just a high-powered hot glue gun (in essence). Be willing to make some mistakes and learn from them. (and having that buddy that knows something about it on speeddial helps too.) For me, welding was an extension of wrenching (usually is, especially in exhaust work) and wrenching was related to my insatiable curiousity of “how’s that work?” as a kid. From welding, I turned to blacksmithing, then foundry work, then machining, and those last two were extensions from art classes ( think about it, you have to make a pattern to make a mold to make a casting. Sculpting clay is not all the different from sculpting bondo to smooth out a wooden pattern. Machining is just “removing what isn’t the lion in the stone”; the other form of sculpting.) Wood working I learned by osmosis from my Dad, and fumbled my way forward from there. Making kayaks was so related to building model airplanes as to be one and the same on a grander scale.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you, you can’t learn ‘that’. If you don’t want to know, no one can make you learn, if you WANT to know, no one can stop you.

I’m 57, still the perpetual student. And I try to teach others what I know I know. And I know the tools to learn have grown exponentially in this day and age. Yet I see so many unwilling to use the tools because “learning is boring’ or something.

I made mention to Burnout, who is more broke than I and wants to go back to school: get on ChatGPT, ask Chat to assemble a curriculum for whatever subject matter you want, using commonly available books (public library level) and establish a timeline with testing intervals. You can acquire a college level education for pennies and even have a tutor available to explain the tough stuff to you.

great idea, no follow-up, no discipline. And I see that more and more. its too much like work, with no immediate gains. And thats the sharp stick in the craw. Most people want that silver bullet fix. They want the gain without the pain of paying thier dues.

They want the title of novelist without pounding out millions of words over 20 years. They want the ‘Guitar God” image without spending 8 hours a night for 10 years developing a style or sound. They want the “Expert” title with the gaining of a Bachelors degree. They want the name but not the scars on the hands to show “I earned this”.

And heres an observation from yours truly. I’ve experianced this in my personal efforts as well. COMFORT ENCOURAGES LAZINESS. When I am comfortable with my station in life, my creative efforts tend to lag. When I’m broke and desperate, my creative side explodes: Looking for that way to make a $50 something for Fifty cents. The ways are there, finding them is the education on steroids.

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Ok, Keyboard is flashing at me, saying “battery low”. Thanks for letting me droll out nonsense yet again.

Love y’all Stay curious.

Live

Love

Laugh

Learn

LOAD!!!