Several parts resonated with me. This one early in the article stood out:
> But the vast majority of what I know in my work has come from continuously saying “yes” to jobs I’ve never done before – I decided I could figure them out by being careful.
I learned something like the above from my dad — watching him jump head-long into things he knew nothing about (or very little about).
When I was a teenager and travelled to Alaska to visit him he had just got a job there running the water treatment plant in Homer. He took me up to the plant where he showed me how yeti all works — the huge osmosis filtration system, the small laboratory onsite for insuring the city water quality. He showed me how he draws water out and runs various tests on it. Dipping a test tube first into a bath of HCl acid (with his bare fingers) before rinsing it, filling it with sample water, then into an ultrasonic bath to release any dissolved gases, then into a device that measures the water turbidity by shining light though the glass vial and measuring the scattered light.
I knew he had taken Chemistry in college but running a water treatment plant did not seem to be on his resumé to my knowledge. "How did you know how to do this?" I asked. He pointed to a three-foot row of binders along one counter in the lab and said, "I read the manuals they keep here."
"But how did you even get the job?"
"Told them I had worked as a chemist (true), and said I could do it...."
This was a small town in Alaska so maybe things were a little looser — but still, I admired his fearlessness. Knowing him I suspect too if I had asked him what the consequences would have been if he had failed or been "found out" I am sure he would have said, as he often did, "What's the worst thing that could happen? I get fired."
I was also amazed then to see him adding a room onto his small home in town. I was not shy to add weather stripping to a door or window but once you are pouring a footer, framing, hanging drywall you were, in my mind, firmly in pro territory. Somehow my dad just jumped into it and figured he could learn it (best to learn on your own house, I guess).
What's the worst thing that could happen? He would have to hire someone to come in and finish his mess.
Since then I have tried not to have pre-supposing mental barriers as to what I can and cannot do. And in a lot of ways the world of possibilities began to open up for me.
I mention all the above because I have found throughout my life that most people seem to be like I was before my encounters with my dad started to change my perceptions. I want other people too to be unafraid to try doing a thing themselves.
I think that there is a whole skill set in learning how to do what your father was doing, and it has been one that I've worked on a lot in my life.
One thing you may keep in mind is that "getting fired" or "hiring another contractor" aren't, in fact, the "worst that can happen".
I have been doing a certain amount of "entertainment rigging" (suspending $100K+ stacks of speakers in the air for concerts). I didn't have as great a perception of our responsibilities for the safety of other people until I started working on things that could easily kill someone if the job is done poorly. My standard went from "would I stand under that?" to "would I let my buddy's kids stand under that"?
In many things there are plenty of "even worse" outcomes- your water system could have lead in it, for instance. Or the wall could blow down and kill someone.
I don't say that as a criticism of your father; rather there are two motivations:
a) part (perhaps most) of the skill set of being willing to try and fail is knowing when to call someone else who does "know"
b) it's good to be kind with ourselves about being a little afraid when we are doing things because often we can't know what we don't know.
Several parts resonated with me. This one early in the article stood out:
> But the vast majority of what I know in my work has come from continuously saying “yes” to jobs I’ve never done before – I decided I could figure them out by being careful.
I learned something like the above from my dad — watching him jump head-long into things he knew nothing about (or very little about).
When I was a teenager and travelled to Alaska to visit him he had just got a job there running the water treatment plant in Homer. He took me up to the plant where he showed me how yeti all works — the huge osmosis filtration system, the small laboratory onsite for insuring the city water quality. He showed me how he draws water out and runs various tests on it. Dipping a test tube first into a bath of HCl acid (with his bare fingers) before rinsing it, filling it with sample water, then into an ultrasonic bath to release any dissolved gases, then into a device that measures the water turbidity by shining light though the glass vial and measuring the scattered light.
I knew he had taken Chemistry in college but running a water treatment plant did not seem to be on his resumé to my knowledge. "How did you know how to do this?" I asked. He pointed to a three-foot row of binders along one counter in the lab and said, "I read the manuals they keep here."
"But how did you even get the job?"
"Told them I had worked as a chemist (true), and said I could do it...."
This was a small town in Alaska so maybe things were a little looser — but still, I admired his fearlessness. Knowing him I suspect too if I had asked him what the consequences would have been if he had failed or been "found out" I am sure he would have said, as he often did, "What's the worst thing that could happen? I get fired."
I was also amazed then to see him adding a room onto his small home in town. I was not shy to add weather stripping to a door or window but once you are pouring a footer, framing, hanging drywall you were, in my mind, firmly in pro territory. Somehow my dad just jumped into it and figured he could learn it (best to learn on your own house, I guess).
What's the worst thing that could happen? He would have to hire someone to come in and finish his mess.
Since then I have tried not to have pre-supposing mental barriers as to what I can and cannot do. And in a lot of ways the world of possibilities began to open up for me.
I mention all the above because I have found throughout my life that most people seem to be like I was before my encounters with my dad started to change my perceptions. I want other people too to be unafraid to try doing a thing themselves.