The Ferengi Rules of Commerce
I confronted Armin Shimerman at a trekker con in Livonia, Michigan, in the early 21st century. He said that he had read The Fountainhead in college and was going to revisit the works of Ayn Rand in preparation for the up-coming season.
Rule #137. Necessity is the mother of invention. Profit is the father.
:)
but the most comprehensive list I have found is here.
http://projectsanctuary.com/the_compl...
96. Faith moves mountains - of inventory.
Exploitation begins at home. One of my favorite.
I am forever telling parents when they complain about work that needs done. "That's what kids are for...USE them."
When I was 11 or 12 we moved to a place with over an acre of lawn. I was very quickly shown how to drive the lawn tractor. A woman I work with would fret because her husband injured his wrist very badly and couldn't use his hand at all for many weeks. She had to learn to drive the lawn tractor and it frightened her. I asked why her son, who was a few years older than 11, didn't do the lawn. Nope, too dangerous. He just finished his freshman year of college and he's never mowed the lawn or pulled a weed. Baffling!
I was using a chainsaw that I had purchased that year and when I flipped the switch to turn it off, it kept running. Hmm, do I idle it until it's out of gas? No, I pulled the choke on and it stopped.
What could cause the problem? Well, to kill a small engine you close a circuit that shorts the spark to the engine block so the plug can't fire. To get to the switch I just had to remove a cowling and viola, a metal contact had slipped out of place. Problem solved based on knowledge my father had shared with me while I helped him work on engines.
I didn't need the manual, I had knowledge and my eyes. I was able to finish my tree work instead of paying a shop to fix a 5 minute problem. And, more importantly, I addressed a serious problem myself where the nearest civilization was 45 mins away - and cell coverage is unreliable.
That particular situation wasn't life threatening, but it could have been. So how is having your son or daughter mow the lawn going to save their life someday? Easy, when the lawnmower or garden tractor breaks down, you'll teach them how to fix it. And when they're broken down in the middle of nowhere maybe what they learned by mowing the lawn will save their life.
All theoretical... I've never had or raised a kid of my own.
It also has to do with imagination and thinking ability. Some decades ago, I picked up my Ford Taurus at the dealership after hours on a Saturday and immediately knew I had a problem: Something in the ignition interlock went "snap" and the key turned freely. I called AAA for a tow, but canceled before they arrived when I realized that the remote starter I'd had installed would let me start the car!
Drove home and discovered that the remote starter didn't include a remote "stopper."
Figured out that popping the hood and pulling the ignition fuse out of the fuse block would work, so now I could park the car AND restart it to take it back to the dealer.
Turns out that was one common failure in those Tauruses. Next car for me was a Prius. Nothing in there that I can fix, adjust or change, so I had to settle for adding a towing package with wiring harness and some side-marker lights that Toyota didn't think were a benefit on the '04 models. If I can figure out their obscure circuit wiring diagrams, I'd still like to work some front running lights into the car, too, but I may replace it with a newer model before I can do that mod.
I like my skills! And abilities!
Of course, dropping a wrench across the terminals of a healthy 12v car battery can cause an explosion of acid that can maim or kill you, too.
I describe hybrids like the Prius as "a computer with four wheels." Five, if you count the spare tire, and six if you count the one you can grab from the driver's seat.
After that, it's a computer. Fact: there is NO direct mechanical connection from the 'gas pedal' to any part of the engine. A Hall-Effect magnetic sensor tied to the pedal sends a position signal to the computer(s) and it/they decide whether to start/run the gas engine, suck electric power from the propulsion battery or some combination of each... or neither.
In our Prius V, when the cruise control is set, if you go down a hill, it switches to an energy-recapture mode to actually keep the car from increasing its speed down the hill... it STILL tries to maintain the cruise speed by pumping a bit more electricity back into the drive batteries!
With electronic ignition, electrically-driven water pump and power steering, virtually all of the maintenance has been designed out of the power train!
Simple? NO! Complex? Definitely! Easy? You betcha... in '04, my Prius was one of the only models on the road with a single "Start/On" button and no 'ignition switch.' In fact, the car senses if I have the key fob in my pocket to unlock the doors or 'boot' the computers! When I rent a 'normal' car, I have to remember to take the keys out of my pocket to unlock or start the car! How many makes and models use a "Start" button today... Many!
Such is life. The fist cars were VERY 'simple' but not 'easy' at all. Today, the opposite is true.
Ignition points? Gone. Distributors? Rare. Spark plugs? Last 100k miles or so before you need to think of cleaning or replacing.
And I still pine away for my '69 Corvette, where I could do ALL those things to the car and Had To, let alone remove, adjust and replace the carburetor before the engine block cooled off.
Such is life.
It doesn't benefit a child to send him into the world armed only with book knowledge. Additionally, these kids are often self centered and never learned to communicate.
I keep meeting kids who don't know where their parents work, or don't know what their jobs are. Those details aren't necessarily critical knowledge, but lacking them speaks volumes about how much and what kind of attention they're getting at home.
Also, so many jobs are of such high conceptual levels that explaining them could be difficult. Office work - especially on a computer - is largely intangible.
That said, I do agree with your main point. Our daughter knew what we did over the years. My wife was a waitress. I drove a cab. Then, we programmed computers. When I was writing freelance, I sometimes took her to interviews with me - as a child of 10, not an infant, of course.
As much as I agree that hands-on learning is important to the fully rounded individual, it remains that in our society, being able to play a musical instrument is probably as important as knowing how to fix your car. Some people object to rewarding kids for school work, but I believe that it can be important to shaping values.
ps.. when it comes to playing a musical instrument OR 'fixing your own car,' neither one should be counted on to support you and a family as a career. They're great additions and contributions to one's life, and can be wonderfully rewarding, but it's still a good idea to factor in Maslow's Hierarchy of needs, too, and what you can do to supply them for yourself! :)
I'm no mechanic but I rebuilt a V8 from a 55 Chevy wagon when I was a teenager. My dad was a good mechanic until the introduction of the emissions controls amd fancy electronics in the 70's. Now when I go to a repair shop they know it'll be hard to rip me off. The same thing goes for home repair, basic plumbing and basic electrical.
I reviewed a book here, She's Such a Geek! (http://www.galtsgulchonline.com/posts...) In one of the stories, a researcher from India had to wait for a technician to fix anything in the lab because she never had any mechanical experience growing up. In her case, it was a matter of money: though her father was a highly-placed government employee, his salary did not allow the family to own a car.
That said, I suffered the same fate. Growing up, both home and school told me that I did not need to take shop classes in school. Thirty years later, I was writing the mechanical maintenance manual for a six-axis robot. It took me two years.
I was lousy in middle school shop... no creative skills, lousy self confidence.
But by high school, I was on the academic track, so shop classes were hard to even sign up for, but an EE rented mom's upstairs apartment and we hung out together for years and my science and mechanical curiosity blossomed. We routinely worked on his car, doing brake shoe changes and things like that.
By the time I was out of college, I could figure out how damned near any mechanical thing worked, and often still can. I've got two friends with higher IQ's that can't figure out things that are intuitively obvious to me.
I started wood-turning as a hobby about three or four years ago and now my artistic skills are coming out, too. It just took me one hell of a long time to let them out!
And some time ago I realized that I could explain how virtually any and every part of an automobile worked, and why... bumper to bumper and virtually all subsystems. I like me!
My point included 'perfect pitch,' too. What kind of study or experiment could prove there is or isn't some migrant chromosome or gene that carries 'perfect pitch' OR 'musical ability' and that, since even "identical twins" aren't 'identical,' ....
oh, whatever...
:)
The Minnesota Twins Project is well known and well respected and has stood the test of time.
I enjoy the Socratic Method of asking for more and more clarification until I'm satisfied that the REAL answer has been reached, or 'root cause' whether or not 'authorities agree' or 'the answer has stood the test of time.' It helps me find real reality and avoid cult-like groups.
Thanks!
As for artistic ability, I don't seem to have any. My mom is a portrait sculptor, gives lessons in Florida. My brother is a talented film and TV makeup artist, one who actually has work! He's in demand for his seminar on how to apply bald caps properly, so they don't show. I can paint a wall, as long as it's only one color! I see colors perfectly yet I can't tell if two articles of clothing go together.
Anecdote: A friend of mine who fixes stuff pulled over and grabbed a new looking lawn mower that had been left for bulky pickup. He took it home; it was empty so he put in some gas and pulled to see if it would start.
Second pull, ran like new, apparently not a single thing wrong with it.
See http://www.plusaf.com/woodshop/woodsh... for examples, especially the "Featured Items" link.
You may have artistic and creative knacks that you just haven't uncovered yet. I started turning about four years ago at age 56 or so!
They always tell me that Americans have no clue how to negotiate because they rarely do or have to.
Negotiation for everything is a way of life in almost every other country in the world except here.
I have always commanded a higher salary than my co-workers for only one reason. I negotiate everything, and almost always.
My wife loves to negotiate, as do I. So much fun to go into a normal retail store and negotiate extras or lower prices for something.
8 years ago my wife negotiated from Sam's club on a scratch and dent Plasma TV ($1,850 retails) down to $525.00 if we bought the 3 yr service contract, which she also got 50% off their retail price on. Out the door for the TV, $685.00. Only thing wrong with it was scratch on the back and no remote control, which was taken care of anyhow by my Cable Company universal remote.
Free advice is seldom cheap.
The Replicator is excellent, however as a symbol of post affluent technology. It is a nice icon to push to let one pose questions having to do with a world where everyone is affluent and no one has to work.
Jan
(I agree with your comments, Riftsrunner, and gave them a Thumbs Up, but just to say…)
BTW: I know a business owner who hires family just for that reason. Real employees would not put up with it.
The market is always right, and always amoral.
If only other species could be made tranquil by stroking their ears.
The Enterprise series created a lot of inconsistencies with the history of the future, but was not alone in that. The DS-9 episode "Trials and Tribble-ations" attempted to reconcile the Klingons of the original series with the ones we now know. I believe that another ST:NG or DS-9 also involved massively inoculating the Klingons with a genetic agent to protect them from a plague…
The problem is the medium. Television is produced on a tight schedule. But even books have their problems. My wife proofread about a hundred for Bantam-Doubleday, an one award-winning writer reintroduced a dead guy in the middle of a scene. The author fixed that. The thing is, though, if directors "fix" things, then we have George Lucas constantly re-writing Star Wars. The first Jabba the Hut was a human.
You do have a good point about the television cycle. Good shows seem to engage the writers before they get to shooting season, but some excellent shows (B5 for example) had MS writing scripts only a week ahead, but he had a gift for keeping the story intact. B5 was one of the best laid out Arc I have ever seen.
If you have not yet done so, go check out Prelude To Axanar on You Tube, and then the Axanar page, they have done a superb job in production and management. I think Axanar will end up on par with some of the mainstream movies in Trek Lore.
Dealers do not like to leave their tables, even to eat. Also, the convention venue hotels do not allow outside food. So, the kids run orders to the restaurants - snacks, light foods, or whole dinners. The dealers are tuned in to the process of course. They have been doing this for years. If the kid does not strike a deal before she runs, she might not get paid at all. "Thanks," the dealer says, and turns away to eat: no money. So, they learn. They also learn that no two deals are the same.
My daughter did that for five conventions. When she graduated from high school, she worked a year for a telemarketer, saved her money and moved to Miami, and never looked back. She tried college twice. It just held no lasting attraction. Right now, she is managing the reconstruction of a bar. They bought the neighboring space, got the permits, got the contractors, and the rest is in her lap.
And I cannot take credit. It was all her. One time, I was sorting Mercury Dimes and on the 2x2 for a 21-D, I wrote, "1 million. Rare." She said, "Dad, nothing with a million known is rare."