Popular Mechanics Ramblings

[Fore and Aft]

Isn’t it ironic how we now have such good internet resources to be doing so much more ourselves yet we are not.
I have just been thinking this since using YouTube today to learn how to replace an Impeller (brought of eBay) on our Suzuki outboard. The best bit was I did not even have to leave home to get the part or access the information.
I wonder if people will ever start doing more themselves again?
Cheers

[HeinSdL]

Agree the internet is perfect exactly for diy. As a result I do everything myself except things I can't do myself (eg taking out the mast) or really dislike too much (antifoul). I would not be able to afford my boat otherwise. Entirely thanks to the internet.

[El Pinguino]

I go on Youtube when the Dyson needs an overhaul.... never mind the boat stuff......

Back in the dream time... from about 1990ish to 2001 or so... I used to write for a Strayan sailing mag.... a feature article a month... assorted stuff... cruising grounds, technical stuff, even the occasional ripping yarn....

Research for technical stuff involved visits to libraries, buying books (! it was all tax deductable...), trawling the addys in UK and US mags and writing to manufacturers etc.
A 2000 word piece would typically take 3 months and I would normally have 3 on the go at once...

Wrote a bit on self steering.... involved snail mail to all the manufacturers I could find... Hydrovane sent back.. along with a lot of info ... a photo... a real 6x4 photo....!!

And they asked I could send it back as it was the only one they had......

About the last thing I wrote was on solar panels... I did all my research on the internet... and I thought.. if I can do this so can everyone else...

That... together with a dispute with a new editor on several levels... was the end of that...


I had also run out of ideas.....

[slug]

Originally Posted by HeinSdL

Agree the internet is perfect exactly for diy. As a result I do everything myself except things I can't do myself (eg taking out the mast) or really dislike too much (antifoul). I would not be able to afford my boat otherwise. Entirely thanks to the internet.

The internet can be a great resource for equipment parts , installation and service manuals

Spare parts and tools are often the limiting factor

Some repairs , even if within your skill set , are cheaper to contract

[Fore and Aft]

That’s what I was thinking Ping all this information is so easy to get now. Imagine having this information at our finger tips back in the days everyone was building their own boat....(at least in NZ)
Cheers

[slug]

And google tracking and profiling makes it really difficult to find the good stuff

I have better luck by adding PDF to the end of a search or using a non English language in the search to confuse google

[coopec43]

I used to go along to the local (Shire) library every Tuesday and take out 2/3 books every week.

But I used to work over the road from the State library and often in lunch hours I would go through their "Discard" books and buy them for $2/3. My absolute prized possession is A field guide for seabirds of the world. There are color photos of each bird, a description and maps showing their habitat.

I also have books dedicated to species of whales/dolphins/seals

My bookshelf at home is full of Hiscock, Adlard Coles, Steve Dashew, Knox Johnson and Alan Lucas books.

[jmh2002]

Originally Posted by Fore and Aft

That’s what I was thinking Ping all this information is so easy to get now. Imagine having this information at our finger tips back in the days everyone was building their own boat....(at least in NZ)
Cheers

Fore and Aft...

You know this is just what Kiwis and Aussies do though. That's not the same everywhere.

And oddly enough, as you mentioned, now with all this information freely and easily available many of the newer, younger, internet generation are doing less and less instead of more and more.

It's the same with cooking - so much prepared food now. And so much knowledge lost in a time when there is more knowledge available at our fingertips than ever before.

Even recently I found I had to teach a young Italian girl how to cook Italian food (I'm not Italian). She could have learnt from her grandma, she could have learnt from the internet, but instead she didn't learn at all. Sad really.

But for our generation, with our thinking, of course we think that all this freely available knowledge is absolutely brilliant!

In the home workshop, whatever that may be for, boats, cars, motorbikes, etc, of course an internet connection is a necessary part of the 'workshop tools' these days.

El Pinguino really made good points about what it used to be like to try and get information and knowledge. So many things are so much easier now and yet appear to be so much more difficult for the current 'users' to have a go at.

Even when I'm living in a rented apartment I still tend to always have a small tool kit with me, because it's just easier to, eg: get out a screwdriver and tighten something - et voila, it's fixed (somehow like magic in some people's minds )

Well, you wouldn't believe the weird looks that I get. Until the owner realises what I just saved them compared to calling a professional plumber, electrician, or whatever for such simple things.

But then again some of us also just have this desire to understand how something works, even just simple everyday home things. This seems to be being lost too.

Generally when I ask someone these days, "do you know how this works" (I mean in general, not at engineer or science level) - well the answer is most often a blank stare. And it's even worse with younger generations who can search and check and learn all these things on their phone.

So yes, it is all totally ironic.

[a64pilot]

Not many people actually use the net to learn things, they are too busy on whatever popular social media site is in vogue.
The younger generation isn’t as interested in actually doing physical things, as kids we would build things, tree forts, knock together bicycle jump ramps, home build skate boards, make Frankenstein bicycles etc.
Many of the younger generation have been so absorbed by virtual gaming if you will that they never developed those physical skills.
It’s gotten so prevalent that the big home improvement box stores are losing business and they have begun giving classes on how or read a ruler or hammer etc., cause the younger home buyers now, can’t. What they do, they hire done, they don’t DIY as much anymore.

Our Grandchildren lived with us for a few years, our Grandson in particular wouldn’t leave the computer or video game console. We lived on a Farm, had a couple of big dogs to run with, they had access to Honda motorcycles, and 80 and a 50, swimming pool etc. he wouldn’t go outside.
He said one day that the could skateboard, so I bought him one, he tried twice, fell off both times and never tried again.
One of his games had a skateboard on it, so he though the could skateboard.

Whe the net first became a “thing” I thought we would become the smartest, best educated Generation in history, I mean the entire worlds knowledge was now easily available, didn’t have to go anywhere.

I should have known better.

[tkeithlu]

"we now have such good internet resources to be doing so much more ourselves yet we are not."

But we are doing more ourselves. You would not be able to tackle replacing the impeller in your outboard if you did not have to coaching from the internet. I would not have been able to replace the defective screen on our navigation laptop if I had not watched a YouTube first.

[jmh2002]

Some are doing great deal more, and some are doing much, much less, and then panicking when they can't get an Uber or get Food delivered...

This is survival level you know. I mean how will they eat?

[tkeithlu]

That's the electronic irony. The new technology does more, so you depend on it, then it fails. You become completely dependent on GPS and then a fuse blows. You make up your presentation in PowerPoint rather than slides, and then you computer decides that it needs to update.

[Mike OReilly]

Just gotta say, El Pinguino's post was like a blast from the past. I've been a full-time freelance writer since 1990. I'm amazed that I was able to be as productive as apparently I was way back in the dark ages of card catalogues and physical libraries. Back then you actually had to visit places, or talk to someone on the phone, to get information. Now I just sit in my PJs and bang away at the keyboard.

As for the broader rant (), I'm not sure if "the kids today" are any less able than my generation. I think it's a complex question. Today fewer and fewer devices we own are designed with DIY in mind. Rather, they are purposely designed to dissuade DIY. From the computer or iThing, to the cars and motorcycles we buy, manufactures have purposely made it harder for buyers to look under the hood.

Is this cause, or effect? I can't say, but it is a reality. Heck, there's a whole social and legal movement afoot now trying to reclaim the right to repair our devices. So I don't think the whole problem can be laid at "the kids today."

But I agree, our societies are generally becoming more screen-oriented; less doers than voyeurs. I don't think this is confined to "the kids" generations though. I've observed that in a large multi-generational gathering, it is often the people of my generation who are more glued to their phones than the younger ones.

[jmh2002]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Just gotta say...
... Back then you actually had to visit places, or talk to someone one the phone, to get information.

That sounds terrifying.

[Eigenvector]

However………………..There are the producers of these DIY videos which must be given credit. Some are first class and some are so-so. These are the outliers to the above discussion.


We finished up a year long project a few months ago which required that the “System” be deployed in 2 days and recovered in 1 day. The deliverables included an Operations Manual.


Having watched plenty of DIY type videos, I promised the Operational Manual would be in a Video format. Heck how tough would it be, 4 guys with GoPro’s on hard hats, 2 days of deployment, 1 day retrieval. Besides, we were the Engineers & Fabricators. Piece of cake, right?


Boy was I off on the effort required. Things I learned:


- = Use a tripod. Tripods don’t look all around while you’re doing something with your hands. They don’t talk or look at other tripods and then back at the work in progress.


- = Limit your talking to a script or dub it in later.
- = Work slower than normal.


- = Assume that it will take 3 or more takes to get it right for the viewer.


- = Assume the above takes are done after you think you’re done. A couple weeks in our case.


- = Account for the massive data storage requirements.


- = Review for OSHA or similar compliance. Wouldn’t want to show up in a Joke Thread.


Overall I would/will do things like this again but with new respect and knowledge.