Dave Ferguson’s ongoing home renovation project is always a source of entertainment. Work has now shifted from his study to a bathroom. Dave deconstructs a trip to the hardware store to buy a specific type of plastic sheet for the contractor, and discovers how experts who typically use different terminology figure out what’s required. (RN)
Just-in-time learning and shower pan liners | Dave’s Whiteboard | Dave Ferguson | 10 March 2009
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Richard: this has reminded me of the American exec who was way up in a Toronto hotel. On a dreary, cloudy morning, he called the front desk to find out the temperature. “It’s 15,” they said.
After a moment, he asked in exasperation, “What temperature is that really?”
My contractor is truly an exemplary performer. He’s also my wife’s brother, which explains why a Wisconsin contract has been on a Maryland job for two months. As with many exemplars, though, from the outside you have no idea how they analyze problems and arrive at decisions.
I’m only sorry I haven’t saved all the empty cans of coffee. While many have been repurposed to hold screws and such (boy, there are lots of screws), a photo with all of them would be a stunner.
Dave Fergusons last blog post..Just-in-time learning and shower pan liners
Dave: Congratulations on having married into a union that comes with a skilled contractor. I’m sure my wife wishes she had done the same. She just doesn’t appreciate my skills with duck tape.
I’m presently attempting to build a guitar. This is something that requires a lot more precision than anything I’ve done with tools in the past. Perhaps the skills required here will improve my home repair abilities.
I keep hearing phrases like “drop the soffit” and “I’ll hit it with mud again tomorrow.” They’re textbook examples of highly compressed language that makes complete sense to other experts.
I would think building a guitar requires that you build more that one. I haven’t had that urge, though I still would like to learn the pipes. I have just enough knowledge to know that I need a tutor, and just enough financial insight to think, “Not just yet.”
Dave Fergusons last blog post..Figuring things out (the plodding edition)
About the tribal language of home renovation, the same can be said about the learning profession. Whenever we give a presentation on, say, selecting a learning management system, someone almost always comes up afterward and asks “I enjoyed your presentation but what’s a learning management system?”
About the need to build more than one guitar, I agree. The challenge, though, is that one guitar takes about 300 hours of work. So, unless Ray Kurzweil is right and we’ll be living to be many hundreds of years old, my ability to become a master of the craft will be significantly limited by having taken this up in mid-life.