Things Every Man Should Know

Russell Street

Russell Street

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Obviously one should know not to button the bottom coat button and how to dimple a tie and all, but what other skills are requisite for the modern adult male?

I posit that one should know the phonetic alphabet. If you're spelling out an e-mail address on the phone, do it like you're calling in an air strike, not using childrens' first names.

You better know which way to turn a screwdriver too.
 
Rambo said:
Is this something people have an issue with?
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Honestly, he beat me to it. I don't think they teach roman numerals in the schools, and cursive writing is next.
I maintain that a man should be able to work a manual gearbox.
And at least be able to change light bulbs and trip circuit breakers.
 
I'd add:

Unclog a toilet
Unclog a sink
Oil a squeaky hinge
Speak to groups / in public
 
Russell Street said:
Honestly, he beat me to it. I don't think they teach roman numerals in the schools, and cursive writing is next.
I maintain that a man should be able to work a manual gearbox.
And at least be able to change light bulbs and trip circuit breakers.
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Yes, telling time still is important but becoming less relevant for the reasons outlined above. I suppose one good iGent obsession is analog watches so maybe they will save the world.

The downfall of cursive writing is already upon us. They do not teach it here in Canada depending on the jurisdiction and there have been news stories on teens printing their signature because they have not learned cursive writing.

How to read a paper map is still something that I use to judge men. Can they do it at all. Can they do it without turning it to match the direction they are travelling in.

How to relight a gas furnace or water heater.
 
thruth said:
How to read a paper map is still something that I use to judge men. Can they do it at all. Can they do it without turning it to match the direction they are travelling in.

How to relight a gas furnace or water heater.
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Yes and yes. A modicum of navigational literacy is a must. Can they find a street from the index, estimate distance? Basic boy scout stuff that you look like a helpless little twit when you can't do it. I was clueless at reading bus/train schedules, being raised a suburban twit.

I knew someone, a real hurly burly guy, that had to call in someone when he had a gas smell. Oh how I laughed when they told him the pilot light on the stove had gone out.

I'll add basic photocopier operation (loading, clearing jams, using trays and scaling stuff...) and replacing a faucet washer.

There are tons of basic DIY things that my jaw drops when grown men start talking about "getting someone in to look at" because "I don't want to touch it."
 
Russell Street said:
Yes and yes. A modicum of navigational literacy is a must. Can they find a street from the index, estimate distance? Basic boy scout stuff that you look like a helpless little twit when you can't do it. I was clueless at reading bus/train schedules, being raised a suburban twit.

I knew someone, a real hurly burly guy, that had to call in someone when he had a gas smell. Oh how I laughed when they told him the pilot light on the stove had gone out.

I'll add basic photocopier operation (loading, clearing jams, using trays and scaling stuff...) and replacing a faucet washer.

There are tons of basic DIY things that my jaw drops when grown men start talking about "getting someone in to look at" because "I don't want to touch it."
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To me there seems to be an odd disconnect between not knowing how to do basic things and the interwebz. I am not surprised men don't know how to do these simple DIY things but there is a YouTube tutorial for everything which makes it so much easier to acquire skills
 
You know, I read a similar insight about how unforgivable it was nowadays to remain ignorant of basic clutural references and other lite intellectual premises, but what you mention is even more pitiful. I mean if you can empower yourself to fix something right now for free/cheap...by watching a two minute video, what excuse is there for remaining ignorant and reliant? Is one solely a consumer or capable of creation (even via imitation)?
 
Well, I've never had a gas appliance in my life, so I have no idea how to work a pilot light or gas furnace. What you have to disconnect are knowledge and the willingness to do/learn/try.
 
Rambo said:
Well, I've never had a gas appliance in my life, so I have no idea how to work a pilot light or gas furnace. What you have to disconnect are knowledge and the willingness to do/learn/try.
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Well, today's gas furnaces & water heaters have electronic ignition. The instructions and diagrams are in plain sight. All one has to do is turn a switch to the pilot setting and press the igniter. Different from when you had to lay on the ground with a match hovering over the gas jet on the pilot.
 
thruth said:
Well, today's gas furnaces & water heaters have electronic ignition. The instructions and diagrams are in plain sight. All one has to do is turn a switch to the pilot setting and press the igniter. Different from when you had to lay on the ground with a match hovering over the gas jet on the pilot.
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Ok, but upon first seeing it, I still would be all "uhhhhh, ok, what the fuck is this thing?"
 
JimmyRustler said:
X2. I recently fixed my washing machine thanks to a 2 minute YouTube video. And car stuff too, I know how to do most things but if I don't there's a video out there. Plus other Internet forums (wranglerforum.com jaguarforum.com vn750.com) and all the world's knoedge is available for free.
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+1000
 
Rambo said:
For me, it's not knowledge, but access to the proper tools and help.
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Tools.

1. Acquire the basics: hammer, drill, screwdriver bits, socket set, wrenches, measuring tape, circular saw, Dremmel tool, jig/sabre saw

2. Get married. Buy more tools to do new things on her "list" items to acquire depend on her & her list

3. Buy a house. See 2.

4. Sell the house & buy land. See 2. X 100. Build a Quonset to house your shop & machines. Grow a beard, get fat, wear plaid & become a hybrid of Norm Abram & Bob Vila. Wait, Bob Vila knows shit about shit
 
Cunt-and-a-half know-it-all plus he took kickbacks from Weyerhauser while @ PBS
 
I moved this to Everything. If you guys want to make a NSFW version or something, then go ahead and put that in DT. But seeing as how this is clean I figured it could be shared by everyone.
 
Rambo said:
What you have to disconnect are knowledge and the willingness to do/learn/try.
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This. There is ignorance and there is timidity and willful ignorance. I work with a ninny that's has no curiosity or experimentation about him. He lives in roped-off world where he's scared to touch things. Meanwhile, I wondered onto a scissor lift and played with it till I figured it out.

In honor of him, I will mention that a man should be able to change the desktop on his computer.
 
JimmyRustler said:
Back when I was an asshole in college I used to change the windows registry on others' computers to change the name of things like the trash can to "Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here" or the start up screen to goatse.
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Two great ones:
1. Do a print screen and paste in Paint to get an image of the desktop with icons. Set this as wallpaper. Then remove some icons, leaving an unresponsive image of them in the same place.
2. Just change the color of everything in a color theme to the same color, usually black.

Anyway, back on the DIY learning online gig, in the olden days you'd read a few steps in a Chilton or Haynes manual and look at the grainy grayscale photos and realize that some job was beyond you. Now you watch a friggin narrated color video and say "oh, easy."
 
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Rambo said:
For me, it's not knowledge, but access to the proper tools and help.
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Yeah, I'm not pretending to be as Jack-of-all-trades as Thruth. There are jobs that are a hassle, require experience, have high risk or require assistance or specialized tools that, fuck it, pay an expert.

But there is plenty of simple stuff that a man with balls should be able to tackle. It amazes me that there are motorcycle owners that will go to dealers for oil changes. The fill and drain plugs are right there in the open, as is the filter. You don't need to jack anything and the tools needed are a standard socket and ... a pan. Maybe a cheap filter wrench. A fifteen minute job that anyone can do, yet people will ride half an hour to a dealer, have a friend pick them up, wait a few days... repeat in reverse and pay top dollar for it.

A lot of the 'clean hands' mentality comes from snooty middle-class parents wanting their children to have soft lives. My parents hated it when I took mild automotive tasks upon myself, but decades later when I can come over and snappily ease their car woes they don't protest.
 
Do they still have "shop class" in school anymore? This was a good introduction to basic skills that one might need in life. Woodworking was a bit of a waste unless one will acquire a band saw, router, planer etc. in one's life. But I learned to use a cutting torch and various forms of welding which, even if I don't use them often, get's one over that fear factor of the strange and unknown.

I also did silk screening in drafting class. The old school way. Hand screening. I put a picture of Fritz the Cat giving the finger on a T-Shirt. Got me a suspension.
 
I have no idea why the education industry finds real life skills so abhorrent but won't shut up about rapidly obsolescing computer hardware and software. Don't issue kids iPads, issue them socket sets.
Again, it's not so much the actual skill as the confidence to give it a go. Mind-forged manacles must be removed.
I gotta say, the "methods of manufacture" or whatever course it was that had the machine shop was one of the more useful college courses I took in that you got a sense of how things were done.
 
Russell Street said:
I have no idea why the education industry finds real life skills so abhorrent but won't shut up about rapidly obsolescing computer hardware and software. Don't issue kids iPads, issue them socket sets.
Again, it's not so much the actual skill as the confidence to give it a go. Mind-forged manacles must be removed.
I gotta say, the "methods of manufacture" or whatever course it was that had the machine shop was one of the more useful college courses I took in that you got a sense of how things were done.
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Yup. Demystify things
 
He promised me a bag of risotto and he never delivered. I can't work for a man who doesn't keep his word even though he is trying to keep the ancient thirsts alive
 
Guy was lucky, the bear wasn't running, just curious brisk walk was all.
 
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