

How lessons from a tradesman can help out a techie - toast76
http://blog.bugherd.com/how-lessons-from-a-tradesman-can-help-out-a-t

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nosignal
I had some similar thoughts while taking a night class in woodworking a few
months ago. Seeing as I'm never going to blog it, I'll put them here.
Hopefully, the parallels with software projects are obvious.

 _Have a side project on which to practice new techniques._

This course was structured to have the first 2 or 3 weeks learning basic
techniques (joins, gluing, tool use) and the rest spent using those techniques
to build a final project. Because I was just learning, I'd practice and
practice making e.g. mortise & tenon joints on pieces of scrap wood, and then
throw them away before doing the "real thing". Often these practice joints
were better than the final product, and I threw away a lot of wood (and time).

While you'll always need to do some throwaway practice, it would have been
better if I'd had 2 projects on the go. That way, I would have ended up with a
probably-still-incomplete side project (say, a simple side table) as well as
my butcher's block. Most likely I would have scrapped the side project at the
end anyway, but it's possible it may have ended up of equal or better quality
as my supposed "main" project. Not to mention you learn more when you have a
practice project than when you're just making joins in scrap, or gluing random
scraps together; if you treat your practice as a whole project then you get to
not only practice the individual techniques, but also how the overall project
comes together.

 _Adjust the plan to the materials._

Starting a woodworking project was entirely new to me so I was a little
nervous. I'd heard "measure twice, cut once" a hundred times and was terrified
of getting any measurements even a millimetre out. The key to a beautiful
finished product was precision, I thought. As such, I approached the plan I
chose as gospel. However, after selecting a plan for my project, it turned out
that I couldn't get the timber in the exact dimensions the plan called for.
This struck terror into my heart - how can I make a cut 130mm if my lumber is
only 128mm long? At first I would try to wrangle (glue, cut, or plane) the
timber into the dimensions the plan called for. This was very wasteful of
time, effort & materials. After realising that, I tried just pressing on
blindly and worked only with the materials, but 2 or 3 steps later, things
started to not join together properly because my measurements were out.

Eventually I learned the best way was to pick a plan, gather the materials
that most closely matched the plan, then go _back_ to the plan and redraw it
with the measurements of the materials I'd found. This was much less effort in
the long run, and allowed precision within the constraints.

 _It's not done until it's finished._

This one's pretty straightforward and hardly unique to woodwork, but woodwork
lets you make a bad pun about it. My final project was a standalone butcher's
block for the kitchen. Although the construction is complete, and everything's
glued & fixed together, it's still not done. I haven't had time to do the
final sanding, polish the legs, and finish the surface with oil. Being exposed
to food oils and fats, the surface needs to be finished before you can use it,
otherwise it'll chip, split & splinter. I didn't leave enough time in my class
to finish the surface, and haven't made time to do it at home, so my project
is at once 95% and 0% complete. At the moment, it's effectively just a heavy
piece of fuel in the garage.

If there's some aspect of the project that conceptually seems like a "final
step", make sure that you budget for it in your project scope, and don't think
"well, the hard part's done, so I'll stop work" - the project isn't done until
you finish it (in the case of a woodworking project, literally).

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dfc
I would supplement #4 with take care of your tools. I don't think it is as
applicable in the tech world but if you watch master carpenters/painters/etc
you will see that they spend a little time at the beginning and end of
everyday ensuring the upkeep of their tools.

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chrismsnz
To a techie, his "tools" are probably his mind and body. Pays to take care of
those to stay productive :)

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dfc
I think a tradesman would also think his mind and his body were his tools...

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vbrendel
The only difference is they can't get stolen ;-)

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MacMania
Great read, some useful advice even for us non techie readers

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gexla
A techie is also a tradesman. I would say a techie has a lot more to learn
from a business person, especially those who are freelancers. Being a techie
may not be for everyone, but for those who are a good fit for it, the tech
skills are easy to pick up. Business and people skills are much more
difficult. In other words, anyone can pick up a trade, but not everyone can
translate those skills into a business. In a world which seems to be more and
more filling up with people going out on their own rather than making careers,
these skills are very important.

