Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What Being a Handyman Has Taught Me About Male Insecurity

theatlantic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 134 posts

Re: What Being a Handyman Has Taught Me About Male Insecurity

#41

Post by WalterBright »

dpeck wrote: post #17
InclinedPlane wrote: post #10

I took AP classes in college, and I work in the software industry, but I still know how to work with my hands and I'm very happy to have that knowledge. It's not that hard, if you feel bad about not knowing anything, go learn, go take a class or two, go read a book or two, go ask a friend, or use the internet, there are a million excellent resources out there. Pick a simple project and do it, then do another project.…

" Stocking a basic toolbox is extraordinarily inexpensive, there's really no reason not to have one." This is great advice, anyone reading who doesn't have at least the basics please get them. I have a few friends who I help out on occasion and it is incredibly frustrating to not have the basic tools available. Decent screwdriver set Socket set Hammer Electrical Pliers Multimeter Pliers Adjustable Wrench Just these b…

Pfft. You need an oxy acetylene torch, which is the solution to about all handyman problems.

Re: What Being a Handyman Has Taught Me About Male Insecurity

#42

Post by XorNot »

epoxyhockey wrote: post #21
dizzystar wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen this played out so many times, it is quite sickening. I generally found that union folk can't pound themselves out of a paper bag. At the risk of sounding inflammatory, many home owners want everything cheap as humanly possible, so they find people willing to do it for below minimum wage (immigrants) and buy the cheapest, warped material they can find at Home Depot. Sometimes spending a little extra money f…

many home owners want everything cheap as humanly possible, so they find people willing to do it for below minimum wage (immigrants) For the record, many home builders also think this way. Unfortunately, most home buyers and owners don't have any sense of what qualifies as quality materials or labor.

This is more the problem. Just because you're paying more money doesn't mean your buying quality anything - someone may just be pocketing the difference.

Re: What Being a Handyman Has Taught Me About Male Insecurity

#43

Post by arethuza »

jakejake wrote: post #32
rayiner wrote: post #27

> Although I've worked for plenty of men who seem to be perfectly comfortable with the arrangement of using the money they earn with their own skills to pay for someone else's expertise, there are three reactions I've grown familiar with that suggest there's often anxiety about letting another guy do your "man jobs." I grew up here in the U.S., but I still find Westerners weird sometimes. My dad grew up in a village…

I feel exactly the same way. Nothing makes me happier than to hire a skilled tradesman and see the great results when the work done. His work is going to be much better than mine, assuming I could even do it. I don't really understand why any guy would be threatened by this. I think of it as working smarter, not harder.

That's pretty much my view - I haven't done any "serious" DIY for years once I found out that a really good tradesman will be much faster, much better quality and often not even that expensive.

Of course, the trick is finding the good tradesmen.

Re: What Being a Handyman Has Taught Me About Male Insecurity

#44

Post by keithpeter »

"In the course of his career, my dad was an infantry officer, a military attaché, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, and an arms-reduction negotiator. At home, he was a wrench. Dude could fix anything."

That is a career. I imagine the work at home was a form of relaxation and a way of spending time with family, as well as seeming natural from childhood.

"It's clear, however, that even though boys these days usually have little opportunity to receive vocational education at school or elsewhere, there is still pressure for men to somehow have absorbed traditionally masculine skills by the time they are grown up."

We seem to have lost the idea of education somehow in our chase after pass rates (UK perspective), so schools are pushing the book learning more. Families have less time these days for informal education by helping.

Re: What Being a Handyman Has Taught Me About Male Insecurity

#45

Post by Avshalom »

shardling wrote: post #39
mattdeboard wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Atlantic was banned from reddit for spamming last year. Wouldn't surprise me if they were doing the same BS here.

Well, the submitter of this article has a 5 year old account. They frequently submit news articles from a variety of sources, and are also an active commenter. (Though, they do seem to like posting quotes.) The other two atlantic articles on the front page are from 2-3 year old accounts that likewise post a lot of pieces from various newspapers. You're welcome to dig through their posting history for a conspiracy, bu…

Doesn't necessarily have to be the poster, the upvoters are the ones that get it on the front page.

Re: What Being a Handyman Has Taught Me About Male Insecurity

#46

Post by hso9791 »

wfunction wrote: post #34
ameister14 wrote: post #12

Until I went to college I didn't realize not everyone learned wood and metalworking in school. Industrial Arts, it was called. We learned to make jewelry, forge with iron, etc. Then in high school I did woodworking instead, and made furniture, which most of us sold as a side job. I just thought that was totally normal. I'm still not sure why it isn't.

The farthest I ever went was metal shop in middle school and wood shop 1 in high school...

I had obligatory wood shop from age 10 to age 15 (late 80's - early 90's). Endless hours of sandpaper, shavers, and various old school tools. It was fantastic!

Still today, if I really want something made right out of wood, I know I can do it.

Only wish there had been obligatory metal working, too.

Re: What Being a Handyman Has Taught Me About Male Insecurity

#47

Post by johnchristopher »

ameister14 wrote: post #12

Until I went to college I didn't realize not everyone learned wood and metalworking in school. Industrial Arts, it was called. We learned to make jewelry, forge with iron, etc. Then in high school I did woodworking instead, and made furniture, which most of us sold as a side job. I just thought that was totally normal. I'm still not sure why it isn't.

Crawford is touching the subject in http://www.amazon.com/Shop-Class-Soulcraft-Inquiry-Value/dp/...

I enjoyed reading that book and it relates to the topic.

I remember reading that 'industrial arts' were trashed in favour of computers and to prepare for the coming of the 'information era'.

Re: What Being a Handyman Has Taught Me About Male Insecurity

#48

Post by wfunction »

hso9791 wrote: post #46
wfunction wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The farthest I ever went was metal shop in middle school and wood shop 1 in high school...

I had obligatory wood shop from age 10 to age 15 (late 80's - early 90's). Endless hours of sandpaper, shavers, and various old school tools. It was fantastic! Still today, if I really want something made right out of wood, I know I can do it. Only wish there had been obligatory metal working, too.

Our middle school metal shop was amazing, we had a forge and everything! High school wood shop wasn't as awesome because, as luck would have it, we went in exactly 1 year after the old teacher left, and the new teacher knew nothing about wood shop (he was learning from the students). I learned a lot from a couple of the students but a teacher have taken us a lot farther.

Re: What Being a Handyman Has Taught Me About Male Insecurity

#49

Post by jhull »

pyre wrote: post #4

Personally, the tension that I have in dealing with contractors is not wanting to be taken advantage of. Much in the same way that mechanics and used car salesmen are 'notorious' for taking advantage of people.

probably exactly the way someone feels when a non-technical person wants a website made and a google search tells them it only costs $200

Re: What Being a Handyman Has Taught Me About Male Insecurity

#50

Post by rrreese »

shardling wrote: post #39
mattdeboard wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Atlantic was banned from reddit for spamming last year. Wouldn't surprise me if they were doing the same BS here.

Well, the submitter of this article has a 5 year old account. They frequently submit news articles from a variety of sources, and are also an active commenter. (Though, they do seem to like posting quotes.) The other two atlantic articles on the front page are from 2-3 year old accounts that likewise post a lot of pieces from various newspapers. You're welcome to dig through their posting history for a conspiracy, bu…

I like the fact that you investigated this before posting rather then being "ra ra conspiracy" like the other posters.
Post reply on HN