This.
Most of the population has no clue how a chainsaw works..why would they. It hardly makes them "stupid".
Clueless homeowners and their saws
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This.
Most of the population has no clue how a chainsaw works..why would they. It hardly makes them "stupid".
Smitty Smithsonite
ArboristSite Operative
We're a dying breed. I see it in the auto & motorcycle industries, and with lawn equipment. Back when I was a kid, if you DIDN'T fix your own stuff, we thought you were strange, lol. Now it's a rarity to find someone that actually repairs their own stuff.
I won't say a majority of, but quite a few of my customers couldn't tell you what a piston is for, where it goes, or how it works. The younger they are, the less they know. My dad and grandpa taught me 90% of what I know. School (Motorcycle Mechanics Institute) taught me the electrical side of things. My grandpa taught my dad. It's the way it always was, up until recently. I think it's due to the unprecedented wealth increases over the past 70 years. People now have the money, and can't be bothered to learn.
I won't insult anyone that falls into that category. I just find it sad. If the crap hits the fan, to which all signs are pointing towards more than at any time in this Nation's history, a large majority of this population is going to be in for the damnedest rude awakening humankind has ever seen.
I won't say a majority of, but quite a few of my customers couldn't tell you what a piston is for, where it goes, or how it works. The younger they are, the less they know. My dad and grandpa taught me 90% of what I know. School (Motorcycle Mechanics Institute) taught me the electrical side of things. My grandpa taught my dad. It's the way it always was, up until recently. I think it's due to the unprecedented wealth increases over the past 70 years. People now have the money, and can't be bothered to learn.
I won't insult anyone that falls into that category. I just find it sad. If the crap hits the fan, to which all signs are pointing towards more than at any time in this Nation's history, a large majority of this population is going to be in for the damnedest rude awakening humankind has ever seen.
Knowledge is lost in a generation. A father knows how to do stuff. So busy doing stuff or at work or entirely absent. Junior grows up in front of a TV. Right there, the family tree lost a precious inheritance that will likely never be recovered.
I don't think anyone is being faulted for not knowing. They're being faulted for refusing to learn when it's shown how much they have to learn.
Cord_Nipper
ArboristSite Member
I can honestly say Dad taught me more than I retained. I really wish I'd paid better attention.
I can't count the hours spent under a car with him.
I can still do my own maintenance. And if pressed could probably rebuild an engine. But I don't ever over estimate my abilities.
But other skills he taught me are still being used today. I can build a fence that will last the rest of my lifetime.
I blame the parents only to a certain point. There comes a time when junior has to decide if he's going to be able to function on his own in the world, or if he's going to be ****ing useless like his parents, and have to call a repairman to fix a drinking straw that's bent. After that point, it's on him, no matter how he was raised.
That was me.
Edit: Apparently I need to clarify. That was me, meaning I had the choice to make. I was completely disgusted with how utterly ineffective at life my parents were. I vowed to never be like them, and taught myself everything.
PithFreak
ArboristSite Member
Doesn’t help they don’t have shop class in high schools anymore.
It’s all by design in the school systems, indoctrinate the kids into being useless lazy communists who’ll gladly give up personal responsibility for big brother “protection” . Praise stem jobs while frowning upon real men who get **** done (trades)
BranchManagr
ArboristSite Lurker
Joke:
Son; "I wish I'd listened when my Dad was showing me."
Reply; "What did he say & what was he showing you ? "
Son; "Don't know. I wasn't listening & I was looking elsewhere !!"
Son; "I wish I'd listened when my Dad was showing me."
Reply; "What did he say & what was he showing you ? "
Son; "Don't know. I wasn't listening & I was looking elsewhere !!"
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Its the lawyers. Kid gets hurt in shop, school gets sued, no more shop. Generations of mechanically illiterates roaming the world trying to start their lawn mowers, or cursing the sprinklers that spray the street more then the grass..
PithFreak
ArboristSite Member
It’s much deeper and complex than just lawyers, but they definitely play a part.
A big problem is all the kids growing up in urban centers with all the apartments, condos and private homes with completely finished basements. No workshop facilities. Only tools in the place is a junk drawer with a few screwdrivers, pliers and duct tape and parents who consider the right way to fix anything is to call someone in to do it. Kids grow up thinking the only tool you need is a computer and the internet. Kids growing up in the country still have a chance with the right parents.
Exactly like anything if ya don't know ya learn even if just the basics and what excuses could possibly be used this day and age with all ya need to know about anything in a Phone in ya hand I mean they live on em anyway.
These new generations get a free pass just because they don't know really? Wasn't like that in my day.
Down here uni students share house and when the real estate comes around they ask why are most the lights blown in the house? the uni students reply we can't afford to pay someone to come around and replace them! not even joking lol
These new generations get a free pass just because they don't know really? Wasn't like that in my day.
Down here uni students share house and when the real estate comes around they ask why are most the lights blown in the house? the uni students reply we can't afford to pay someone to come around and replace them! not even joking lol
Instead of making fun of make it a teaching moment.
I just had a guy in with 2 saws wanted to trade them in. I was why not let me see if can be fixed. Both just fuel lines.
I ask what file etc you using to sharpen chain with. I got a blank stare.
I showed them correct file sizes and even to buy the guide to keep him from free handling. Yes showed him guide set up too. Then showed how to file his chain to touch them up.
Teach them IMHO. You missed a great opportunity to share what you have learned.
I just had a guy in with 2 saws wanted to trade them in. I was why not let me see if can be fixed. Both just fuel lines.
I ask what file etc you using to sharpen chain with. I got a blank stare.
I showed them correct file sizes and even to buy the guide to keep him from free handling. Yes showed him guide set up too. Then showed how to file his chain to touch them up.
Teach them IMHO. You missed a great opportunity to share what you have learned.
BrettS
ArboristSite Operative
Half of em don't want to learn or say can you do it.Instead of making fun of make it a teaching moment.
I just had a guy in with 2 saws wanted to trade them in. I was why not let me see if can be fixed. Both just fuel lines.
I ask what file etc you using to sharpen chain with. I got a blank stare.
I showed them correct file sizes and even to buy the guide to keep him from free handling. Yes showed him guide set up too. Then showed how to file his chain to touch them up.
Teach them IMHO. You missed a great opportunity to share what you have learned.
You wont know till you offer though.
BrettS
ArboristSite Operative
If you offer they say can you fix it, I'm too busy, I can't be bothered, you know more about it than me etc etc. I have had people ask me to fix xxxxx and tell me they have tried to fix it so I'm stuck fixing their fu%k ups.You wont know till you offer though.
Well thats your choice. I have shown folks their f-ups and hand back and let them fix. I have had folks try and bring them in boxes. No problem this is my labor rate and off I go. Money in my pocket.
Just never know when you run across this type.
I'm of the opinion that it is the fault of parenting as that part of society has changed drastically. Kids are a creature of their environment and if the parents do not do it and or make their kids help or do things on their own the kids are perfectly content with sitting behind a computer and or video game. In my generation we got NO allowance unless we did something to earn it. Taking out the trash, garbage, mowing the lawn etc. We hunted to augment the dinner table and got very few snacks of any kind as we just could not afford them. My dad taught me by doing it himself and me helping even if I was only able to hand him tools. Of course, my dad was a pattern maker and learned the trade in high school and then served as an apprentice which has also went by the wayside and replaced with kids going to college to study basket weaving and then crying that we should ALL pay so their college loans can be forgiven. The first and foremost responsibility of parenting is preparing your children for the next stage of their lives so they may be able to support themselves as well as a family they may have. The generations rely more and more on technology to replace what the human body does up to and including doing their thinking for them to figure out simple math. I saw my cousin's grandson NOT be able to write his own name in cursive when having to sign his hunting license and he was a senior in high school. PITIFUL. If one were to be honest many, many things have been lost, as one is very hard pressed to even find a REAL butcher because the meat packing industry is full of meat cutters, meaning they make ONE CUT and that is it as the carcasses speeds down the processing line and a machine or another person continues the removal of that cut of meat.
I guess it's good for business plumbers down here will charge the clueless $300 plus to change a washer in a tap lol
XYooper906
ArboristSite Lurker
I raised two sons. The oldest was exactly like you; he had untold opportunities to learn basic mechanical repair & maintenance. He would just find any excuse not to do it. He had access to a car I owned during his high school/college years, with the stipulation that he maintained it properly. When it stopped running, of course he came to me, and it was obvious that it had been neglected. So I told him that I would fix it, but he had to help. It was a big job which required that the engine be removed. Of course, he found every excuse not to help, and when he did, he was less than enthusiastic about learning. After I fixed it, he was all enthusiastic about getting "his" car back. I never let him drive it again.
My youngest son, completely different story. He bought his first vehicle before he was licensed to drive. An old truck that needed repairs to make it safe and reliable. We fixed brakes, steering & suspension components, etc. Fixed electrical gremlins. I showed him how to fix a leaking intake manifold. I still can picture him sitting on the inner fender wrenching away. He drove that old truck through high school. One of the few high schools, BTW, that still offers auto tech classes. He took two years of that and excelled at it.
A tale of two sons, with the same opportunities to learn, with two completely different outcomes. Guess which brother asks the other to fix his stuff?
BTW, is your name Kyle?
