“How did you learn to build this way?”
September 5, 2023 5:05 AM Subscribe
Start With Creation by Simon Sarris [Substack] [The Map Is Mostly Water] “In fact, when you stop waiting for others—for either their permission or instruction—and instead begin on your own, fumbling through, regardless of how ready you are, this could be considered one of the true beginnings of adulthood. I think there is value in pushing learning and doing as close together as possible. I wish to learn like an apprentice with no fixed master, instead with repeated trial and sharing the results. If no teacher is found along the way, then the mistakes will be my teacher. Every undertaking is a series of questions and experiments. I believe every hard thing you do, for that matter, acts as a multiplier on the rest of your knowledge. Failure is something you want to tempt. You should court it the way the bullfighter courts the bull. When I wish to learn something, I begin with this in mind.”
You should still knit a gauge swatch
unless you like spending hours on a sweater and then going "ehhhhh I don't like how this one cable feels at this gauge, gosh darn it I'm going to start all over with a different needle size lol #nogaugeswatch #yolo #ohmygodwhydoIdothis"
I did spend a lot of time trying to wrap my head around the cable chart symbols & not really getting it, but it became practically intuitive as soon as I was actually knitting the cables.
So I mostly agree with the piece (for people who learn well this way) but it's wise to jump in with both feet & learn by doing ON A SMALL SCALE FIRST.
posted by Baethan at 5:36 AM on September 5, 2023 [3 favorites]
unless you like spending hours on a sweater and then going "ehhhhh I don't like how this one cable feels at this gauge, gosh darn it I'm going to start all over with a different needle size lol #nogaugeswatch #yolo #ohmygodwhydoIdothis"
I did spend a lot of time trying to wrap my head around the cable chart symbols & not really getting it, but it became practically intuitive as soon as I was actually knitting the cables.
So I mostly agree with the piece (for people who learn well this way) but it's wise to jump in with both feet & learn by doing ON A SMALL SCALE FIRST.
posted by Baethan at 5:36 AM on September 5, 2023 [3 favorites]
Failure is something you want to tempt. You should court it the way the bullfighter courts the bull.
Oh, the beauty and the pain of being a kinesthetic learner. I almost always learn by doing and failing, but I also learn by reading. And I sometimes wonder if that's because I grew up as kind of a lonely, alienated kid whose parents didn't really show her how to do much. They had a "set it and forget it" parenting style, so I had to rely on my wits, and love of reading, alone. Who knows if that came naturally to me or if it was a matter of surviving circumstances. I just had very little family or people around to show me how to do things.
It can be painful, but it also feels so rewarding when I figure it out on my own. Going to be thinking about this article for a bit.
posted by nightrecordings at 5:49 AM on September 5, 2023 [7 favorites]
Oh, the beauty and the pain of being a kinesthetic learner. I almost always learn by doing and failing, but I also learn by reading. And I sometimes wonder if that's because I grew up as kind of a lonely, alienated kid whose parents didn't really show her how to do much. They had a "set it and forget it" parenting style, so I had to rely on my wits, and love of reading, alone. Who knows if that came naturally to me or if it was a matter of surviving circumstances. I just had very little family or people around to show me how to do things.
It can be painful, but it also feels so rewarding when I figure it out on my own. Going to be thinking about this article for a bit.
posted by nightrecordings at 5:49 AM on September 5, 2023 [7 favorites]
The triangle of "Learn by doing," "Build one to throw away," and "Everything is on YouTube" is very empowering.
I have dabbled in a bunch of hobbies because they look accessible and fun -- and they were! I don't stick with all of them, of course...
I was actually thinking about this the other night while throwing something together: why did I have a "materials library" (i.e., boxes of stuff) to hand that I was able to combine? Well, because I had gotten into making things, and started hanging on to likely "ingredients." So when I knew we would be watching field hockey game on metal seats on Sunday, I rummaged around and made a seat cushion on Saturday.
(I tucked a piece of closed-cell foam plus a piece of upholstery foam inside a tote bag, and then sewed it closed along the existing seam. Hand-sewing because the machine is my wife's, and also I have a spool of 3000 yards of strong, cotton thread to use up. Thing turned out great: I even tucked the corners inside and tacked them down. Took like half an hour.)
I wouldn't have tried half the things I do now because I didn't know where to start. But now the whole "journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" line makes sense -- and that step is usually clicking on YouTube's search bar.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:11 AM on September 5, 2023 [4 favorites]
I have dabbled in a bunch of hobbies because they look accessible and fun -- and they were! I don't stick with all of them, of course...
I was actually thinking about this the other night while throwing something together: why did I have a "materials library" (i.e., boxes of stuff) to hand that I was able to combine? Well, because I had gotten into making things, and started hanging on to likely "ingredients." So when I knew we would be watching field hockey game on metal seats on Sunday, I rummaged around and made a seat cushion on Saturday.
(I tucked a piece of closed-cell foam plus a piece of upholstery foam inside a tote bag, and then sewed it closed along the existing seam. Hand-sewing because the machine is my wife's, and also I have a spool of 3000 yards of strong, cotton thread to use up. Thing turned out great: I even tucked the corners inside and tacked them down. Took like half an hour.)
I wouldn't have tried half the things I do now because I didn't know where to start. But now the whole "journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step" line makes sense -- and that step is usually clicking on YouTube's search bar.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:11 AM on September 5, 2023 [4 favorites]
Long time lurker first time poster. I have very mixed feelings about this. On the one hand it is very much the way I learn. Ask me about the queen-size quilt I made to ‘learn’ how to quilt.
However, my functional quilting knowledge came when I bought books, started watching YouTube’s, and finally visited a quilting store to talk to a human who knows how to quilt. Before that I was sewing bits of fabric together and seeing what happened. It is not really possible to learn to quilt by doing because a lot of the process is counterintuitive.
I think speed and execution is very over rated in creativity because that is the fun part. Similar to this man I have built and rebuilt stone terraces because working with stone is unsurprisingly inflexible(ha ha) (but also cheaper than a gym membership) Would I say that I have learned how to build a terrace? No, I have learned how to haul rocks around. My yard work is definitely creative, and it hits the correct dopamine for me. But learning would require that I think first and :) so I would not say I was learning. When people post videos of them learning by doing they often share ways of achieving things that are ‘unique’, wasteful of materials, or even dangerous. I would not share a video of myself making a harness out of garden rope. Because that is just a ‘me’ way of making a rock move and also it left a funky pattern of bruises on my hips.
Unlike this guy, I work in video games. That is my career creativity and have taught lots of young game designers. They get instilled with this belief that making a fast game at a jam in 3 days is the best way to learn game design
I mean it is the best way to learn to design a game that can be built in 3 days but do we need more of those types of games? Is it the best use of their creative energy and intelligence to immediately think about execution?
I honestly believe that if you really want to make a net new thing, sometimes you gotta sit with it for a while. 10 years is not all that long when you consider how valuable a flying buttress has been to engineering over the centuries.
Anyways all I am saying is that in my experience the best fertilizer for creativity is:
Time
Curiosity
Asking for help and being prepared to receive it.
One last thing, this person is very sure he learned from doing, but it sounds a wee bit like he learned from a 70 year old fella in a camp hat.
Also I would never build a palace for geese those things shit everywhere.
posted by MirJoy at 6:20 AM on September 5, 2023 [24 favorites]
However, my functional quilting knowledge came when I bought books, started watching YouTube’s, and finally visited a quilting store to talk to a human who knows how to quilt. Before that I was sewing bits of fabric together and seeing what happened. It is not really possible to learn to quilt by doing because a lot of the process is counterintuitive.
I think speed and execution is very over rated in creativity because that is the fun part. Similar to this man I have built and rebuilt stone terraces because working with stone is unsurprisingly inflexible(ha ha) (but also cheaper than a gym membership) Would I say that I have learned how to build a terrace? No, I have learned how to haul rocks around. My yard work is definitely creative, and it hits the correct dopamine for me. But learning would require that I think first and :) so I would not say I was learning. When people post videos of them learning by doing they often share ways of achieving things that are ‘unique’, wasteful of materials, or even dangerous. I would not share a video of myself making a harness out of garden rope. Because that is just a ‘me’ way of making a rock move and also it left a funky pattern of bruises on my hips.
Unlike this guy, I work in video games. That is my career creativity and have taught lots of young game designers. They get instilled with this belief that making a fast game at a jam in 3 days is the best way to learn game design
I mean it is the best way to learn to design a game that can be built in 3 days but do we need more of those types of games? Is it the best use of their creative energy and intelligence to immediately think about execution?
I honestly believe that if you really want to make a net new thing, sometimes you gotta sit with it for a while. 10 years is not all that long when you consider how valuable a flying buttress has been to engineering over the centuries.
Anyways all I am saying is that in my experience the best fertilizer for creativity is:
Time
Curiosity
Asking for help and being prepared to receive it.
One last thing, this person is very sure he learned from doing, but it sounds a wee bit like he learned from a 70 year old fella in a camp hat.
Also I would never build a palace for geese those things shit everywhere.
posted by MirJoy at 6:20 AM on September 5, 2023 [24 favorites]
Welcome, MirJoy!
I honestly believe that if you really want to make a net new thing, sometimes you gotta sit with it for a while. 10 years is not all that long when you consider how valuable a flying buttress has been to engineering over the centuries.
There is an overlap between learning and play, and I believe that a lot of experiential learners need to be in this area to make the best progress toward mastery.
So the naive, self-taught person will by necessity recapitulate many mistakes that a formally-taught person will be shown how to avoid -- but to me those are the most lasting lessons. (Assuming that I don't hurt myself along the way...)
posted by wenestvedt at 6:50 AM on September 5, 2023 [4 favorites]
I honestly believe that if you really want to make a net new thing, sometimes you gotta sit with it for a while. 10 years is not all that long when you consider how valuable a flying buttress has been to engineering over the centuries.
There is an overlap between learning and play, and I believe that a lot of experiential learners need to be in this area to make the best progress toward mastery.
So the naive, self-taught person will by necessity recapitulate many mistakes that a formally-taught person will be shown how to avoid -- but to me those are the most lasting lessons. (Assuming that I don't hurt myself along the way...)
posted by wenestvedt at 6:50 AM on September 5, 2023 [4 favorites]
I've been a hands-on person all of my life. I think I was wired from birth to build/fix stuff. Success and progress have come from a combination of going it alone, and research/lessons/mentoring.
This is a pretty great time for makers; there are so many sources of information and more maker-spaces to get support from. Still, I will say this: if there's something new you're interested in doing, but you're too afraid to give it an exploratory try til you find a teacher or take a course... you're missing out on much of the sheer "play" aspect of the creative process.
Some demanding things are most easily mastered if you can get the basics from one good introductory course. I bought a little stick welder a few years back, but my first welds were not very good. I took one 4 hour course this summer, had all of my beginner mistakes corrected, and my skills and confidence are much improved. But my initial solo tries and fails heightened my interest and resolve to master this skill.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to finish sticking a new impeller into our 40 year-old outboard motor.
posted by Artful Codger at 7:35 AM on September 5, 2023 [3 favorites]
This is a pretty great time for makers; there are so many sources of information and more maker-spaces to get support from. Still, I will say this: if there's something new you're interested in doing, but you're too afraid to give it an exploratory try til you find a teacher or take a course... you're missing out on much of the sheer "play" aspect of the creative process.
Some demanding things are most easily mastered if you can get the basics from one good introductory course. I bought a little stick welder a few years back, but my first welds were not very good. I took one 4 hour course this summer, had all of my beginner mistakes corrected, and my skills and confidence are much improved. But my initial solo tries and fails heightened my interest and resolve to master this skill.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to finish sticking a new impeller into our 40 year-old outboard motor.
posted by Artful Codger at 7:35 AM on September 5, 2023 [3 favorites]
I think safety is one reason to seek expert instruction. YouTube videos are one thing, but it's nice to have a person in the room who will shout, "PUT ON YOUR SAFETY GLASSES!" or "IF YOU TURN THAT ON THE PIECE OF WOOD IS GOING TO FLY ACROSS THE ROOM." Plus, plenty of safety measures can be non-intuitive or seem excessive, but really are necessary, even if a novice doesn't see the point.
I'd rather learn from other people's mistakes than from my own, when limbs or eyeballs are on the line.
Now, I can't say that I have never injured myself while knitting, but learning to knit from YouTube is less fraught than, say, learning machining.
posted by BrashTech at 9:46 AM on September 5, 2023 [5 favorites]
I'd rather learn from other people's mistakes than from my own, when limbs or eyeballs are on the line.
Now, I can't say that I have never injured myself while knitting, but learning to knit from YouTube is less fraught than, say, learning machining.
posted by BrashTech at 9:46 AM on September 5, 2023 [5 favorites]
I think safety is one reason to seek expert instruction.
And how. Not to be a jerk, because I agree with lots of what he is saying, but watching him wield that slick/chisel my very first thought was "Now there's a person who hasn't cut himself yet."
posted by From Bklyn at 9:57 AM on September 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
And how. Not to be a jerk, because I agree with lots of what he is saying, but watching him wield that slick/chisel my very first thought was "Now there's a person who hasn't cut himself yet."
posted by From Bklyn at 9:57 AM on September 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
Youtube is great and all, but there is something great about finding a community. Epecially if its full of people who want to learn and share their discoveries.
This is where local hackspaces come into their own. There are different flavours, some go more corporate with lots of rules and staff and quality equipment (usually styling themselves makerspaces or fablabs), but the sweet spot for me are the volunteer run, non profit, flying by the seat of their pants on older donated equipment held together by bodges and hope, hackspace.
These tend to be (a lot) cheaper to access, which makes the jump from "this seems interesting" to "you mean I can try that?" a lot smaller. They also tend to set up their instruction courses to quickly bring you up to minimal competency (takes an hour or two), rather than making a large investment to become an expert in something (the multi month trade school model).
Whats minimal competency? Basically, enough information so are not going to: hurt yourself or others, hurt the machine, or wreck your workpiece. Ideally it should also give you enough of the jargon that when you watch a youtube video or grab a book you have a basic understanding of what people are talking about and can get a lot more out of it, and it should cover the (non)obvious gotchas that will ruin your day, or burn the building down.
I know one instructor who can take people who have never run a welder before and within about 3 hours can get them laying down really nice solid beads on a MIG welder. She does this by giving really good feedback, and having a very strong understanding of the learning process.
Are the students after the course as good as welder fresh out of trade school? No, but they are aware of their limitations and the safety risks, and are making perfectly solid shelves and brackets. After the course they can run forth and complete their projects with a new tool on their belt and just enough understanding of the gaps in their knowledge they have to watch out for. And they got there a lot faster (and arguably safer) than a person who just bought a welder and watched some videos on youtube.
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 10:22 AM on September 5, 2023 [5 favorites]
This is where local hackspaces come into their own. There are different flavours, some go more corporate with lots of rules and staff and quality equipment (usually styling themselves makerspaces or fablabs), but the sweet spot for me are the volunteer run, non profit, flying by the seat of their pants on older donated equipment held together by bodges and hope, hackspace.
These tend to be (a lot) cheaper to access, which makes the jump from "this seems interesting" to "you mean I can try that?" a lot smaller. They also tend to set up their instruction courses to quickly bring you up to minimal competency (takes an hour or two), rather than making a large investment to become an expert in something (the multi month trade school model).
Whats minimal competency? Basically, enough information so are not going to: hurt yourself or others, hurt the machine, or wreck your workpiece. Ideally it should also give you enough of the jargon that when you watch a youtube video or grab a book you have a basic understanding of what people are talking about and can get a lot more out of it, and it should cover the (non)obvious gotchas that will ruin your day, or burn the building down.
I know one instructor who can take people who have never run a welder before and within about 3 hours can get them laying down really nice solid beads on a MIG welder. She does this by giving really good feedback, and having a very strong understanding of the learning process.
Are the students after the course as good as welder fresh out of trade school? No, but they are aware of their limitations and the safety risks, and are making perfectly solid shelves and brackets. After the course they can run forth and complete their projects with a new tool on their belt and just enough understanding of the gaps in their knowledge they have to watch out for. And they got there a lot faster (and arguably safer) than a person who just bought a welder and watched some videos on youtube.
posted by Pink Fuzzy Bunny at 10:22 AM on September 5, 2023 [5 favorites]
Failure is something you want to tempt. You should court it the way the bullfighter courts the bull.
Having last month seen a bullfight in real life for the first time, I guess he means "You should make a show of risking the possibility of failure, but actually have other people do so much preparatory work on your behalf that you are almost certain not to fail and moreover almost certain to get all the credit, while wearing the spangliest jacket."
Either that or it's a bad metaphor.
posted by escabeche at 10:39 AM on September 5, 2023 [8 favorites]
Having last month seen a bullfight in real life for the first time, I guess he means "You should make a show of risking the possibility of failure, but actually have other people do so much preparatory work on your behalf that you are almost certain not to fail and moreover almost certain to get all the credit, while wearing the spangliest jacket."
Either that or it's a bad metaphor.
posted by escabeche at 10:39 AM on September 5, 2023 [8 favorites]
MetaFilter: You should make a show of risking the possibility of failure, but actually have other people do so much preparatory work on your behalf that you are almost certain not to fail and moreover almost certain to get all the credit, while wearing the spangliest jacket.
posted by wenestvedt at 10:57 AM on September 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
posted by wenestvedt at 10:57 AM on September 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
"Fools you are...to say you learn by your experience...I prefer to profit by others' mistakes and avoid the price of my own." Otto Von Bismarck*
I'd say that's a better way to do it if the "mistake" involves serious injury/death or large loss. Otherwise this is a better way to get into a subject.
(*on my copy of Bob Pease's "Troubleshooting Analog Circuits")
P.S. He's (Otto) also the guy who (supposedly) said, "Gold can not always get you good Soldiers but good Soldiers can always get you Gold."
posted by aleph at 12:34 PM on September 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
I'd say that's a better way to do it if the "mistake" involves serious injury/death or large loss. Otherwise this is a better way to get into a subject.
(*on my copy of Bob Pease's "Troubleshooting Analog Circuits")
P.S. He's (Otto) also the guy who (supposedly) said, "Gold can not always get you good Soldiers but good Soldiers can always get you Gold."
posted by aleph at 12:34 PM on September 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
I've been teaching myself how to do stuff since I was a very small kid. While I agree that it can be extremely rewarding and does teach some valuable lessons (perseverance, problem solving etc.), structured learning and mentorship are so much faster and teach you things you'd never have learned otherwise. There's a reason people w/access to opportunities and vital connections leapfrog ahead of the rest of us.
I'm taking a course created and delivered by an artist who has his own YouTube tutorials. While I learned quite a bit from his tutorials, doing the course work and having his personal guidance has rocketed me ahead of where I was. The people who are seeming to get the most out of the course are the ones who do all the work but who also play and experiment and push their own boundaries.
posted by Stoof at 2:06 PM on September 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
I'm taking a course created and delivered by an artist who has his own YouTube tutorials. While I learned quite a bit from his tutorials, doing the course work and having his personal guidance has rocketed me ahead of where I was. The people who are seeming to get the most out of the course are the ones who do all the work but who also play and experiment and push their own boundaries.
posted by Stoof at 2:06 PM on September 5, 2023 [2 favorites]
I think the intended takeaway from the linked essay is that the actual doing invites the muse. So do, don't wait for trumpets.
But yeah, safety. The first X pages of the manual included with just about anything useful outlines its baseline safety considerations because lawyers. But do please read those manuals at least once.
The aforementioned stick-welding course I took had a short but useful preliminary discussion on safety. Clear the area. Locate the extinguishers. Did you know that brake fluid on the work could potentially kill you when it vaporizes? And be careful with galvanized. Lots of ventilation! Run that fan!
...and yeah the welding course at the makerspace I took the lessons from can get someone up from zero to confidently laying down lines and beads in the one session. I was actually joining scraps at the end of the night. So lessons are never a bad idea.
Bonus observation - from what I saw, MIG welding is like a glue gun for metalworkers. 30 seconds from idea to joined. But I'm still happy to learn stick.
posted by Artful Codger at 2:42 PM on September 5, 2023
But yeah, safety. The first X pages of the manual included with just about anything useful outlines its baseline safety considerations because lawyers. But do please read those manuals at least once.
The aforementioned stick-welding course I took had a short but useful preliminary discussion on safety. Clear the area. Locate the extinguishers. Did you know that brake fluid on the work could potentially kill you when it vaporizes? And be careful with galvanized. Lots of ventilation! Run that fan!
...and yeah the welding course at the makerspace I took the lessons from can get someone up from zero to confidently laying down lines and beads in the one session. I was actually joining scraps at the end of the night. So lessons are never a bad idea.
Bonus observation - from what I saw, MIG welding is like a glue gun for metalworkers. 30 seconds from idea to joined. But I'm still happy to learn stick.
posted by Artful Codger at 2:42 PM on September 5, 2023
Sorry but I have to go on about that timber notch cutting because it's central to the story: the piece is already sawn free on both sides, so it only needs the sideways tap with a hammer and 95% will pop loose. In the case of knocking out that first section of a notch - trying to take it all off at once means you're risking tearing through and knocking off the far side of the notch. It's better to knock off the very corner and work your way from either end down to each of the marked sides, finally removing the central hump and making it flat once you've got down to your marks.
Setting up a loosely held 45 degree guide block to position your chisel on the line?…and then grabbing a carver's mallet while you try to maintain the angle? …how'd a guide block help put the chisel on the line? It's just a weird TikTok style “craft” demo.
posted by brachiopod at 2:51 PM on September 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
Setting up a loosely held 45 degree guide block to position your chisel on the line?…and then grabbing a carver's mallet while you try to maintain the angle? …how'd a guide block help put the chisel on the line? It's just a weird TikTok style “craft” demo.
posted by brachiopod at 2:51 PM on September 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
I was about two or three days sober, I needed a job, called a guy I'd worked with on/off over the years, "Hey Ralph, do you know anyone who's hiring?" and Ralph called back later that day or maybe the next, said that there's a jobsite on Bissonett, go to the construction trailer, tell them you're there to work on the carpentry piece of it, they'd line me out. I showed up there next morning, cup of coffee and some tools, ready to work, and who do I report to. Chet, the general contractor supervisor, handed me a set of blueprints as big around as my leg.
Note, I'm so screwed up that I can scarcely blow my nose. Did I do the correct thing, hand him back the prints, tell him to have a great day, and go home and kill myself maybe. That would have been a better idea I think, more sane for sure, but sane was something I was in very short supply, so I took those prints and walked into that supermarket shell. I'm pretty goddamned sure it would have been easier to learn French, or Russian, or arithmetic or all of those, but instead I took that set of prints and began to walk around that site, unrolling them, looking around, roll them back, walk over here, unroll, look around, rinse repeat rinse repeat etc and etc and etc. I don't know that I unrolled an extension cord at all that day, just circled 'round and 'round.
Reminds me of James Michener's book "Chesapeake", the part where there are two watermen, and how they trained their dogs to circle, and circle, 'round and 'round, eventually they'd flush the birds hiding out in the marshes. That is pretty much how I did it, and have done it since, other pain in the ass things put on my plate -- circle and circle, read the lunacy word salad spread out for me (whether in building supermarkets or learning to code mainframe CoBOL), read the lunacy as best I'm able, look around, begin ever so slowly to learn my way. I do not want anyone else on the job, not unless they know what the fuck they are about, in which ca se I'd hand them the prints. But don't send me someone who is expecting to be my helper, or whatever else; I've got to circle. Circle and read the prints, see what the other trades were doing, see the material delivered for me, circle more. I don't know that I struck a lick on that site for three days.
I learned. That was 41 years ago, DiHo Asain market is still open, as are the other stores that occupied that strip center. I am remarkably stubborn. I know, on the deepest level, that there is time to do it right, as if you do it wrong you're going to tear it down and do it again so don't be a jagoff, build it Plumb, Level, Square, Straight. Build it True. Build it right. Turned out that, due to my being so goddamn stubborn, I began to get all the jobs that were a total Pain In My Ass, jobs that had to be done Right. One of the most complex jobs I ever built was a goddamned dress shop in Memorial City mall, unbelievably detailed, and had to be perfect because everything that came after me was custom built to the most ridiculous level of detail. I built some Walgreens stores, various supermarkets (though these were not my strength, much more about blowin' and goin', built it FAST! because there's not as much money in them) and a bank, and a huge night-club that ended up owned by Willie Nelson for a couple of years, no idea what it is now.
As I was winding that bank up huge changes were in the wind, oil hit 13 bucks a barrel and the city of Houston absolutely blew apart at the seams, it emptied out. I got very, very lucky, got a gig working as a maintenance carpenter in the apartment complex I lived in, just *barely* enough to pay the bills but Houston emptying out was really something to see, and emptied it was really interesting....
Maybe even more difficult for me to learn was mainframe programming but this comment has bottomed out, or is doing so now, that's a comment for another day, probably I've written it here but if so I'm not digging around for it now, you're welcome to do so but I'm outta here.
posted by dancestoblue at 3:21 PM on September 5, 2023 [7 favorites]
Note, I'm so screwed up that I can scarcely blow my nose. Did I do the correct thing, hand him back the prints, tell him to have a great day, and go home and kill myself maybe. That would have been a better idea I think, more sane for sure, but sane was something I was in very short supply, so I took those prints and walked into that supermarket shell. I'm pretty goddamned sure it would have been easier to learn French, or Russian, or arithmetic or all of those, but instead I took that set of prints and began to walk around that site, unrolling them, looking around, roll them back, walk over here, unroll, look around, rinse repeat rinse repeat etc and etc and etc. I don't know that I unrolled an extension cord at all that day, just circled 'round and 'round.
Reminds me of James Michener's book "Chesapeake", the part where there are two watermen, and how they trained their dogs to circle, and circle, 'round and 'round, eventually they'd flush the birds hiding out in the marshes. That is pretty much how I did it, and have done it since, other pain in the ass things put on my plate -- circle and circle, read the lunacy word salad spread out for me (whether in building supermarkets or learning to code mainframe CoBOL), read the lunacy as best I'm able, look around, begin ever so slowly to learn my way. I do not want anyone else on the job, not unless they know what the fuck they are about, in which ca se I'd hand them the prints. But don't send me someone who is expecting to be my helper, or whatever else; I've got to circle. Circle and read the prints, see what the other trades were doing, see the material delivered for me, circle more. I don't know that I struck a lick on that site for three days.
I learned. That was 41 years ago, DiHo Asain market is still open, as are the other stores that occupied that strip center. I am remarkably stubborn. I know, on the deepest level, that there is time to do it right, as if you do it wrong you're going to tear it down and do it again so don't be a jagoff, build it Plumb, Level, Square, Straight. Build it True. Build it right. Turned out that, due to my being so goddamn stubborn, I began to get all the jobs that were a total Pain In My Ass, jobs that had to be done Right. One of the most complex jobs I ever built was a goddamned dress shop in Memorial City mall, unbelievably detailed, and had to be perfect because everything that came after me was custom built to the most ridiculous level of detail. I built some Walgreens stores, various supermarkets (though these were not my strength, much more about blowin' and goin', built it FAST! because there's not as much money in them) and a bank, and a huge night-club that ended up owned by Willie Nelson for a couple of years, no idea what it is now.
As I was winding that bank up huge changes were in the wind, oil hit 13 bucks a barrel and the city of Houston absolutely blew apart at the seams, it emptied out. I got very, very lucky, got a gig working as a maintenance carpenter in the apartment complex I lived in, just *barely* enough to pay the bills but Houston emptying out was really something to see, and emptied it was really interesting....
Maybe even more difficult for me to learn was mainframe programming but this comment has bottomed out, or is doing so now, that's a comment for another day, probably I've written it here but if so I'm not digging around for it now, you're welcome to do so but I'm outta here.
posted by dancestoblue at 3:21 PM on September 5, 2023 [7 favorites]
Recently I have been part of a makerspace in my city as I began working with various materials, and this is very helpful having access to good tools that would be beyond my budget. I learn well by trying stuff out; but it's also incredibly helpful to bounce ideas off people when I have NO IDEA what I'm doing and nonetheless want to learn (I don't think I'd used acrylic paint since primary school). If people are not fortunate enough to have a space where they can ask people (I feel very lucky) then Youtube is an acceptable substitute.
I also know that I needed a bit of spare money to do this comfortably. If I couldn't afford to waste $50 of materials on a bad but ultimately informative idea then I'd get stuck again.
posted by solarion at 4:43 PM on September 5, 2023
I also know that I needed a bit of spare money to do this comfortably. If I couldn't afford to waste $50 of materials on a bad but ultimately informative idea then I'd get stuck again.
posted by solarion at 4:43 PM on September 5, 2023
That does raise the point that I don't remember being said, the one of privilege.
Besides the safety issue, you must have the resources (time/money/materials) to fumble your way into learning like this. The more efficient way is to follow instructions. But efficiency isn't the point for something like this.
posted by aleph at 10:20 AM on September 6, 2023
Besides the safety issue, you must have the resources (time/money/materials) to fumble your way into learning like this. The more efficient way is to follow instructions. But efficiency isn't the point for something like this.
posted by aleph at 10:20 AM on September 6, 2023
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posted by brachiopod at 5:22 AM on September 5, 2023 [3 favorites]