Skills Every Man Should Know to Know Every Skill a Man Should Need
Published by Joel January 3rd, 2008 in DIY. Share ThisPopular Mechanics has an okay list of “25 Skills Every Man Should Know” on the site. (Disclosure: I am a contributing editor at the magazine. Don’t fire me because I’m about to slag your list a little!)
I’ve put the top five from Pop Mech below, which I don’t think they were ranking in order of importance. Some of that stuff makes sense, like being able to patch a radiator hose. That’s the difference between getting stuck in your car in the middle of nowhere and being able to drive it into a shop. Frame a wall, sure. I’ve had to do that before. I could have hired someone to do it, just like most of the “must know skills” that comprise lists like these, but at the time I couldn’t afford a contractor but I could afford some lumber and drywall.
Here, let me skip past this list to keep yapping. I didn’t want to put it at the top of the post but now it’s distracting me.
1. Patch a radiator hose.
2. Protect your computer.
3. Rescue a boater who has capsized.
4. Frame a wall.
5. Retouch digital photos.
Okay, much better.
Anyway, my point is this: Wait, let me tell you about something I was talking about with my pops. We were talking about DIY stuff, specifically how useful it was to know how to do the sort of stuff I write about for a living. His argument was that he could pay somebody to do just about everything he needed done in his life and that they’d probably do a better job than he could do at it. And he’s right. The whole “my time is worth more doing my job well than doing someone else’s poorly” thing.
But my point was that these DIY type of projects and the knowledge gleaned from doing them helps you know where the line between expert and amateur actually is. It helps you not get fleeced by people you have to bring in, or realize what may seem like a big problem is something moderately easy to overcome. Plus it helps you feel a little more competent at modern life; confident that the world has few problems it can throw at you that you can’t figure out.
And I mean, my dad tore out all the electrical wiring in his boat and rewired it to relax, so obviously there are some DIY projects he’s happy to mess with.
Back to that point: These sort of lists are fun and useful, but it seems to imply some more basic set of skills that might be more useful for men. I mean, the core assumption of a list like this is that you can actually do things, but sometimes I wonder how much people who read Popular Mechanics and MAKE and this whole genre are reading it as aspirational pornography. I know I do! I probably have done like two or three of the projects I’ve read about in the last year that I wasn’t specifically doing so I could write an article about them.
Wait, I’m off track again.
Meta-skills! That’s it. Skills that every man should know that will help to learn other skills.
Here’s my stab at it. Feel free to shoot these down:
1. Understanding how to follow directions.
2. Understanding when to ignore directions.
3. Understanding when to ask for help from friends or experts.
4. Understanding when to stop planning or fretting and when to start working.
5. Understanding that the worst that’s going to happen is that you’ll totally fuck it up. And so what?
Seriously, though, Pop Mech: You put capsized boat rescues next to retouching photos? What’s worse, I bet you have a guy on staff who is the “capsized boat rescue guy,” which would make me the “photo retouch guy.” Clearly I need to start Photoshopping more pictures of boats into my staff portraits.
25 Skills Every Man Should Know: Your Ultimate DIY Guide [PopularMechanics.com]
That’s a pretty strange list if you ask me. #7 How to build a campfire should be “how to start a fire without matches, and # Navigate with a map and compass should be “navigate without a map and compass. I can think of tons more things that more appropriate for a “top 25 things every man should know”.
I dont really go in for the life affirming aphorisms, but I your list is an achievement.
Number 5 is sublime.
I have a problem with your dad’s point of view on DIY things. My opinion is actually that I can do a better job than most contractors. It just takes me a lot longer. Think about it - who’s going to do a better job: the guy that does it every day, for a paycheck, working as an employee, and who won’t see the job again as long as it’s good enough? Or the guy that’s got all the time in the world to do it, who cares about how it looks and how it’ll wear, and who has to see it day in and day out after it’s done?
I spent hours making sure my new bathroom cabinets were perfectly straight, at exactly the right level, and flush against each other. I made sure all the doors closed perfectly level and flush, and they lined up with each other. My mom spent $16,000 on custom hickory cabinets, and the doors hit each other when they closed. I had to go fix them for her - after the contractor made two trips trying to fix them.
‘Course, I’m a perfectionist, and my projects take far too long. Sometimes I’ve paid to have the work done so it’s actually completed rather then drug out over the course of three months. I grit my teeth every time I look at my messed up dining room electrical outlet.
More on-topic to the post: Your list is much better. But it probably wouldn’t sell as many manly magazines.
I dunno - if you don’t trust the guy you hire to do the job well enough for you, then don’t hire that guy. There are plenty of contractors - the majority, even - that aren’t just doing a “who cares how it looks when I leave” job, because a) it’s their job, they’re good at it, and they take pride in it, and/or b) it’s only good business to do a job well. I bet you didn’t recommend your mom’s crappy contractors to any friends…
My point is that I agree with Joel’s dad. Let me do what I do and get paid for it, and let the contractors do what they do for my money. I’m sure that if I put in the effort, I could teach myself how to redo the bathroom, but my time’s valuable, y’know? And I could tell my wife “I’m working on it” for a few months, or I could call a guy and have it done within a week - and, because I have no problem using referrals and in putting in a teeny-tiny bit of extra work to be sure I’ve hired someone competent (and I’m not so incompetent myself that I don’t know when I’m being snowed - usually), I’m sure that it’d be done as well or better than my work would be.
And sure, I wouldn’t have that sought-after sense of DIY satisfaction, but I would have the even-more-sought-after sense of having a new bathroom and a happy wife.
I’ve got a lot of experience working with contractors - it’s part of my job. We make sure we use good contractors, and pay a lot of money for them. They are good contractors. But the finished work has flaws I wouldn’t leave in a job I completed for myself; and often I do small touch-ups / fixes after a contractor leaves. We’re talking, for example, a $9,000 paint job in a 3,000 square foot office. Done by “the best,” and, again for example, there’s a little paint on the oak molding around a window. No matter how much you pay, and how carefully you select the contractor, there will be little flaws like that here and there - if you’re lucky. If you’re unlucky (or unwise) you’ll get major flaws.
I would say the average contractor does not do an excellent job. The average contractor does a passable job. Most of them do not take a lot of pride in their work. There are a handful that are amazing, though, and those are the ones we hang on to and work with for decades.
Unfortunately painting is the hardest one to get excellent results with. I think it’s because the barrier to entry is so low.
The “my time is valuable” argument amuses me: what are you going to do with the time? Watch TV?
My wife helps with the house projects.. that completely eliminates the “why isn’t it done yet” question.
“The “my time is valuable” argument amuses me: what are you going to do with the time? Watch TV?”
Uh… work? For money? Which some consider valuable?
And you know, maybe I *would* rather watch TV than frame a wall, a job I could pay a guy to do instead of taking however long to learn how, and then taking months to do a semi-decent job.
And yes, I can do my own painting and yes, I understand why it’s hard to find good painters. I thought we were talking about more extensive projects that require more technical skill than that, though.