Mechanical Ability

[philipp10]

Originally Posted By: HangFire
This is a favorite topic of mine, and Merkava's bafflement at why people can't do the obvious (to him) is part of the issue. It's the same social maladjustment mentioned in the Dilbert video (thanks for that, Tom, by the way) that often accompanies technical ability. He views it as people who are technically maladjusted. They view it as him being socially maladjusted, putting technical and mechanical things above social priorities.


I used to downplay the talents of people with the "knack". Probably since I grew up seeing it all the time, I just assumed anyone could fix things too. Years later, after working with some very smart engineers, many with masters and doctorates who didn't have the "knack", I realized, this is worth something. Personally I barely scraped by in engineering school (math was not my strong suit) and after getting done, I was really unsure I could ever make a living at it. I ended up in the design end (as opposed to test or R and D) because I had been so exposed to mechanical things at a young age and that provided a good foundation. I think we should feel fortunate that this "knack" is not available to just anyone because if it was, we wouldn't be able to make a living at it as it would be so commonplace.

 

[cjcride]

Made quite a few model kits when I was young. It taught me early that if you methodically assemble or disassemble something it works OK.(most of the time)

The more I work on our cars the better I get. Tools, books and websites are a must.

 

[turtlevette]

I was taking my dads lawnmower apart at 2. I feel that I have a mechanical aptitude. Being able to observe the world and have an intuitive feel and understanding for how things work.

I get frustrated with my wife and others who ask me a bunch of silly stupid questions when I'm trying to get something done. Like how do you know how to do that if you've never done it before.

And no patience with people who don't understand numbers, confusing billion with million. Just think about it for a while to understand you're wrong. Engineers that just plug numbers in a program and accept them as gospel, should be promoted to management where they can't kill anyone.

 

[Number_35]

More thoughts on differing abilities ...

We were fortunate enough to be able to live in New Zealand for a year, almost 12 years ago. My wife worked full-time, and I stayed home as a house-husband and volunteered at my boys' school. But, some of my most enjoyable hours were spent visiting with my neighbours Jim & Liz. Jim had a degree in economics, and owned a dairy farm. He was an amazing musician, and seemed able to play anything with strings. We enjoyed messing around with Jim's fleet of elderly computers.

Anyway, Jim put a puzzle forth to me one day; his son was entered in a school footrace up and back down a local hill, and Jim want to pay his son a reward depending on his performance. 1st place would be worth $100, 2nd place $50, 3rd place $25, and so on. Jim had plotted a number of points on a graph, and had then extrapolated a curve. I recognized a curve of exponential decay and thought I'd dig out some of my math from college days, and eventually came up with the formula

x = a(b^[n-1])
where
x = the prize money awarded,
a = the maximum prize money,
b = the rate of decay, and
n = finishing place.

Jim said that his graph worked fine, and it did, but I said the formula was more flexible, and easily modified, allowing, for example, each place's prize money to diminish by a different rate (e.g. only 10% instead of 50%, or 75% instead of 50%, etc.).

The stumbling block for Jim was the exponent, and I tried to explain how easy it was.

Jim picked one of the many magical stringed instruments off the wall, effortlessly played a charming tune, told me it was easy, and handed the uke or mandolin or whatever it was to me. (I am severely musically challenged; I truly can't clap in time to music.) Needless to say, I was at a loss.

The lesson was administered with grace and humour, and I got it. We're all different, and we have different abilities, and ideally our gifts complement those of others.

 

[Nyati]

Originally Posted By: berniedd
Originally Posted By: Nyati
Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
From reading various posts on this board, it seems like a lot of people don't have the mechanical ability to repair their own cars. Why is that? Is mechanical work that difficult? Is this a skill that some people are just born with? If something is bolted on and needs to be unbolted in order to be replaced, what's so hard about that? I've never considered myself superhuman by possessing some kind of supernatural powers, but maybe I am.

My wife just had her aortic valve relaced in her heart. The cardiovascular surgeon used a new method where they make a 3" incision between the second and third rib and replaced the valve through that little hole. In talking to the doctor before the surgery, he was explaining the new method vs the old method where they just cracked open your chest. He explained the difference is kind of like instead of raising the hood of the car to get to the engine- it's more like rebuilding the engine through the tailpipe. A lot harder to do but much less recovery time & pain. We started talking about cars and he has a new S class Mercedes. I jokingly asked him if he works on it- he laughed and said "no- I take it to an expert". If he has the ability to change a heart valve, I'm sure he could work on his car if he desired. I bet heart surgery is more lucrative though

I have no doubt he could do it if he really wanted to (the internet is a rich source of how-to-do-it, specs, etc), but I suspect he'd rather not, because of lack of time or more likely he'd want to avoid possible injury to his hands while working on the car.



I'd much rather have a heart surgeon working on my car, than have a car mechanic working on my heart

 

[PhillipM]

I'll give it a go, I've got some good jump leads just in case.