Americans have a history spanning over 240 years in which we have made the word “independent” our mantra. We originally wanted to govern ourselves instead of being another remote place ruled by a monarchy. Now we simply talk about being independent because we like to stand on our own and ask for help from nobody. Sometimes that is not always the best way to do things.
A series of videos popped into my social media feed called “Just Rolled In,” which focuses on strange things workers receive in auto repair shops. It’s amazing to see to what lengths people will go to avoid having a professional work on their car. These videos show entire undercarriages held together with cable ties, wires or–a popular choice overall–spray foam. People try to mount new aftermarket parts backwards, leave vital fasteners or layers of support uninstalled. We’re sharing the roads with these DIY yahoos. Some of the videos indicate the “customer declined repairs,” so that guy in front of you in the clunker may be driving on a layer of spray foam and a prayer.
Part of my job is fielding emails, and it seems that customers want to do everything online themselves, even if it means losing benefits or privileges, or compromising security. Many places have highly trained human beings to discuss anything with them 24 hours a day, but if I had a dollar for every customer who said their time is too valuable for them to find a minute or two to call, I would have been retired five years ago. Like the vehicles in the “Just Rolled In” shops, I see customer accounts that look like a tornado invaded their information and turned it into nothing like what it should be. But DIY culture says it’s ours to clean up, not theirs to avoid making into a mess in the first place.
We check our own merchandise at kiosks at the big stores. We pump our own gas (thank goodness New Jersey still has self service). We take our own measurements, tell medical websites our own symptoms, and we wonder why things go wrong.
Nothing can replace human knowledge. We train our brains to know something about a lot of little things, and we usually specialize in one or two big things for which we enjoy a job that pays us well. In the olden days, barter was used as much as coinage to receive services from those specialists on whom others depended to keep things running smoothly. Today, our auto repair shops, bakeries, doctors and web technicians have the knowledge to do things for us.
I’m going to post this now, and my blog provider will do the rest. Thank goodness.
There is much to be said for leaving some skills to the professionals.
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