Appreciation post: From trusting my gut to using computer checks on every job

I fought against tech for a long time, thinking it made mechanics lazy. Seeing how FAST it finds issues changed my whole view.

4 comments

4 Comments

matthewc971mo ago

But what if doing it by hand first taught you things the computer can't? @josephhenderson I get the speed thing, but starting with the machine can skip the understanding part. You learn the patterns and the why by getting your hands dirty. Relying only on the check from the start might mean you miss the bigger picture of how the whole system works.

iris_cooper791mo ago

Ever get so used to the GPS you forget how to read a map? That's what josephhenderson is talking about with speed, and he's not wrong. But if my truck's computer fails and I never learned the old way, I'm just a guy lost on the interstate staring at a blank screen. The machine makes sure you're right, but doing it slow first shows you why you were right. Otherwise you're just hitting buttons and trusting something you don't get.

josephhenderson1mo ago

Wait, you seriously thought it made people lazy? I mean, the computer can check a hundred things in the time it takes to check one by hand. It just seems wild to me that anyone would choose to do all that extra work for no reason.

anthony_brown391mo ago

It's like when people use calculators for simple math and forget how to do division. The speed is great until the battery dies or the app crashes. You see this everywhere, from cooking with pre-made meals to fixing things with YouTube tutorials. The machine does the work, but you miss out on why things work the way they do. Seems we're all just betting on the machine not failing.