Millennial dads have pathetic DIY skills compared to baby boomers

[Anti Federalist]

Been thinking of getting one of those battery powered, 3/8" drive impact guns.

Anybody have any luck with them, or are they just junk made out of Chinesium?

And if so, do you prefer the standard square drive or the "chucked" models?

My air tools are fairly high quality, Mac and Craftsman mostly, and I run them at high pressure, around 140 psi.

How does your battery unit compare to a good pneumatic one?

[oyarde]

A friend uses Ryobi. I think he said if you register new ones these days then they will replace batteries for free. I like my DeWalt set, but it is heavy compared to his Ryobi tools w/ the litium ion batteries.

I have noticed every May they run this special where you get a bag , charger , two lithium batteries for 100.00 and they throw in a new bare tool . Year before last I got my pole saw , this year I got a 3/8 dr impact . Might pick something up next year too . LOL . I had always had Dewalt and Milwaukee before too but one of my son's turned me on to these and I have to say I have been happy with it .

[oyarde]

Been thinking of getting one of those battery powered, 3/8" drive impact guns.

Anybody have any luck with them, or are they just junk made out of Chinesium?

And if so, do you prefer the standard square drive or the "chucked" models?

My air tools are fairly high quality, Mac and Craftsman mostly, and I run them at high pressure, around 140 psi.

How does your battery unit compare to a good pneumatic one?

The one I have is a Ryobi so it may not have as much power as the Dewalt or a Milwaukee . I jut bought the 3/8 so cannot say for sure but I like the 1/2 drive one I bought for myself a couple Christmases ago . The one I have on a lug nut I still need to break it loose with a breaker bar but otherwise it is fine . I always tighten them up with a breaker bar when done anyway so no real change there. I also have a 1/4 impact from them that is designed to be used with all those 1/4 shank bits you see , greatest thing ever to drive smaller stuff with. Mine 3/8 and up are all square drive .

[oyarde]

Basically it is convenience . If someone has a flat in the driveway I do not have to drag air hose around . Or if I am hauling a tractor somewhere on a trailer I can take it and a socket that fits the trailer lugs and toss it in the truck , they also make a tire inflator that takes that battery and I have one of those and use it often. Ideal for something that has picked up a nail or things you let sit around all year with little use .

[tod evans]

Been thinking of getting one of those battery powered, 3/8" drive impact guns.

Anybody have any luck with them, or are they just junk made out of Chinesium?

And if so, do you prefer the standard square drive or the "chucked" models?

My air tools are fairly high quality, Mac and Craftsman mostly, and I run them at high pressure, around 140 psi.

How does your battery unit compare to a good pneumatic one?

They're all Chinesium unless you pop for Hilti and even they use Panasonic cells in their battery...

I listened to a friend who repairs tools under warranty and bought Makita, they're all powdered metal gears and brushless motors but Makita has the best charger which translates to battery life...

[heavenlyboy34]

I am generally not in favor of specialization...it makes for a narrow minded world view, fosters "superiority" attitudes, taken to an extreme, it can make you shallow and pedantic even while being brilliant in your narrow specialized field...think Sheldon Cooper.

Libertarian writer Robert Heinlein said it best, through his character Lazarus Long in Time Enough for Love:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

I used to think so too. But the thing about specialization is it allows you to become really good at a skill and charge more for it. If you specialize in neurosurgery, you'll make significantly more than a general surgeon, for example. I'm a polymath myself, but I have a specialty and charge more than average for my time if someone were to commission a new work from me.

[Danke]

I am generally not in favor of specialization...it makes for a narrow minded world view, fosters "superiority" attitudes, taken to an extreme, it can make you shallow and pedantic even while being brilliant in your narrow specialized field...think Sheldon Cooper.

Libertarian writer Robert Heinlein said it best, through his character Lazarus Long in Time Enough for Love:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

[Fox McCloud]

I am generally not in favor of specialization...it makes for a narrow minded world view, fosters "superiority" attitudes, taken to an extreme, it can make you shallow and pedantic even while being brilliant in your narrow specialized field...think Sheldon Cooper.

Libertarian writer Robert Heinlein said it best, through his character Lazarus Long in Time Enough for Love:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

So you're against increases in wealth in society, got it.

That's exactly what attacking specialization leads to--by focusing on a singular thing that you're best at, you maximize the value that you can bring to the world.

If everyone was a generalist, then we'd all be completely self sufficient......and horrifyingly poor.

Specialization is what brought about some of the greatest increase in wealth in the 19th, 20th, and 21st century. It allowed us to produce more food on less ground, and has allowed us to stamp out extreme poverty around the globe.

To demonize specialization is demonize economic progress; without we'd all end up being pathetically weak jacks of all trades who could do everything half bad, but nothing particularly good.

[Krugminator2]

I'll take the counter view. We live in a division of labor society. I work hard at what I am good at so I don't have to do that stuff. I have a housekeeper, live in an HOA community, and have pay people when something goes wrong with the toilet. Could I landscape and clean and replace the toilet valve if I had to? Sure I could. But why? I am not against physical labor but I did well in school and struggled at what I do for years so I wouldn't have to.

The single best advice I would give someone is do one thing and do one thing really well. And if that one thing goes away at some point in life, find another one thing and do that well. Specialization pays. Being able to do a lot of things is the road to poverty. Ask Thomas Jefferson. He died broke.

[Pauls' Revere]

Well, their dads had 18-20 years to teach them...why didn't they? That kind of thing used to be handed down through the generations, yo.

I use to fix carburetors on my car. Then they invented fuel injection and installed computers. Nowadays, a tune up doesn't require you to adjust the points you get a software upgrade instead.

[tod evans]

So you're against increases in wealth in society, got it.

That's exactly what attacking specialization leads to--by focusing on a singular thing that you're best at, you maximize the value that you can bring to the world.

If everyone was a generalist, then we'd all be completely self sufficient......and horrifyingly poor.

Specialization is what brought about some of the greatest increase in wealth in the 19th, 20th, and 21st century. It allowed us to produce more food on less ground, and has allowed us to stamp out extreme poverty around the globe.

To demonize specialization is demonize economic progress; without we'd all end up being pathetically weak jacks of all trades who could do everything half bad, but nothing particularly good.

I'll take the counter view. We live in a division of labor society. I work hard at what I am good at so I don't have to do that stuff. I have a housekeeper, live in an HOA community, and have pay people when something goes wrong with the toilet. Could I landscape and clean and replace the toilet valve if I had to? Sure I could. But why? I am not against physical labor but I did well in school and struggled at what I do for years so I wouldn't have to.

The single best advice I would give someone is do one thing and do one thing really well. And if that one thing goes away at some point in life, find another one thing and do that well. Specialization pays. Being able to do a lot of things is the road to poverty. Ask Thomas Jefferson. He died broke.

To read your posts I have to wonder what exactly keeps you from wanting to be able to take care of your own stuff?

Is it arrogance? "I can pay others and it's beneath me"

Or is it that your one skillset is so consuming that you're just unable to to focus on such mundane things as maintenance and repair?

High income professions gravitate to woodworking for a hobby, medium income to hotrod boats or cars.....Or is this type of behavior caused by something I'm missing?

[Krugminator2]

To read your posts I have to wonder what exactly keeps you from wanting to be able to take care of your own stuff?

Is it arrogance? "I can pay others and it's beneath me"

Or is it that your one skillset is so consuming that you're just unable to to focus on such mundane things as maintenance and repair?

High income professions gravitate to woodworking for a hobby, medium income to hotrod boats or cars.....Or is this type of behavior caused by something I'm missing?

None of that is correct (for me at least). It just doesn't interest me. I value my time as well as getting the job done well and quickly over the cost.

If someone wants to work on cars then boats then great. I would consider that a huge waste of money and rather save and invest it.

The underlying assumption you and AF make is physical work is somehow necessary and superior to mental work. I would rather smoke a cigar or play with my labrador retriever than change my own oil. Not everyone has to have the same interests.

I don't grow and or shoot all of my own food? Assuming you don't, why are you such a snob? Why use fancy grocery stores when you could just forage for berries for a couple of hours. A lot of this talk about how prior generations could do certain things was out necessity not out of some masculine instinct. When America was a third world country and people lived on less than a dollar a day they could butcher a hog, build shelter, plow a field, or knit a sock. They also lived on a dollar a day and died at 30. Not for me.

[tod evans]

None of that is correct (for me at least). It just doesn't interest me. I value my time as well as getting the job done well and quickly over the cost.

If someone wants to work on cars then boats then great. I would consider that a huge waste of money and rather save and invest it.

The underlying assumption you and AF make is physical work is somehow necessary and superior to mental work. I would rather smoke a cigar or play with my labrador retriever than change my own oil. Not everyone has to have the same interests.

I'll go with necessary but disagree wholeheartedly with superior...

I understand folks are wired differently and I'm just trying to understand what drives a man to actually want to pay someone to maintain his property, I don't get it.

Saying you'd rather play with your dog or smoke a cigar than change your oil makes it sound like you can't do both for some reason...

Maybe you come from a different world than I do? I tend to make time to do what I can instead of paying others and along the way I've found great satisfaction in just doing the job, even though there are many I'm neither fast or good at.

[heavenlyboy34]

I'll go with necessary but disagree wholeheartedly with superior...

I understand folks are wired differently and I'm just trying to understand what drives a man to actually want to pay someone to maintain his property, I don't get it.

Saying you'd rather play with your dog or smoke a cigar than change your oil makes it sound like you can't do both for some reason...

Maybe you come from a different world than I do? I tend to make time to do what I can instead of paying others and along the way I've found great satisfaction in just doing the job, even though there are many I'm neither fast or good at.

This stuff is explained in great detail here, chapter 1, section 8.

[devil21]

Didn't read the thread (eta: read it) but in my line of business, when they require specialized skills for jobs they can't do themselves they freak at the cost. It's like they think people should work for them for peanuts to do what they can't do themselves, while they want to make big money doing mostly nothing. It's ridiculous. Whenever I get a project call from a millennial type I expect not to get the project once they receive the (very, very reasonable compared to most) estimate quote.

[Krugminator2]

I understand folks are wired differently and I'm just trying to understand what drives a man to actually want to pay someone to maintain his property, I don't get it.

Saying you'd rather play with your dog or smoke a cigar than change your oil makes it sound like you can't do both for some reason...

Let's say the unimaginable happens and have a lady over. If I were to clean my own place it would look terrible. There would be grease stains all over the counter that I couldn't get out. Smudges on the mirrors. Dirty base boards. Sure I could clean that stuff but it is tedious. Other people do it super quick and well. I do it super slow and poorly. I would rather not have not take that risk.

Or lets take the oil change example. The risk reward on that is pretty skewed. The upside is I save $50. The downside is I wreck the engine in my car. Not exactly a good scenario. Not to mention, I don't know what to look for that could be faulty. Even if I Googled it, I still would know much less than people who look at dozens of the same make of car every day. I like having the peace of mind of the dealership telling me the whatever thing needs to be replaced or it is going to cause unnecessary wear and tear.

Plus it doesn't necessarily even save money changing your own oil unless you know exactly what you are doing and you don't ever want to resell the car. The first thing I would look at in buying a car is the CarFax and want to see regular oil changes and the maintenance history. If those aren't available I wouldn't consider it.

One thing I did do this year was my own taxes. I know more than 99.5% about taxes than the general population and more than most of the CPAs I have dealt with. I actually just called my old CPA last night because my questions were bothering me so much. I still likely screwed something up and will be going back for my own sanity.

The bottom line is trying to do things yourself isn't a free lunch. There is the cost in time and the cost in doing it worse than a pro.

[devil21]

Been thinking of getting one of those battery powered, 3/8" drive impact guns.

Anybody have any luck with them, or are they just junk made out of Chinesium?

And if so, do you prefer the standard square drive or the "chucked" models?

My air tools are fairly high quality, Mac and Craftsman mostly, and I run them at high pressure, around 140 psi.

How does your battery unit compare to a good pneumatic one?

Home Depot is running a great deal on two Ryobi high capacity batteries and charger for $99 and you get a Ryobi tool free. Impact driver is one of the free tools to choose. Batteries are, well, batteries, so there's that but I'm a fan of Ryobi stuff for a good medium between cost and performance.

[nikcers]

I tend to pay someone to cut my hair because I heard Rand Paul doesn't and have you SEEN his hair??? I used to think someone with funny hair couldn't be president until MAGA won.

[Krugminator2]

I tend to pay someone to cut my hair because I heard Rand Paul doesn't and have you SEEN his hair??? I used to think someone with funny hair couldn't be president until MAGA won.

Perfect example. I said this multiple times when Rand ran for president. Rand saves himself no money cutting his hair. If just one person decided to not get laser eye surgery from him because they thought he looked unprofessional, that cost would be greater than paying for a lifetime of haircuts.

[nikcers]

Perfect example. I said this multiple times when Rand ran for president. Rand saves himself no money cutting his hair. If just one person decided to not get laser eye surgery from him because they thought he looked unprofessional, that cost would be greater than paying for a lifetime of haircuts.

Now that its a political meme he should exaggerate it even more LOL

[PursuePeace]

I've never understood the big deal about Rand's hair.
Looks fine to me.

[Swordsmyth]

To each his own is my opinion about specialization/generalization, it takes all kinds to make the world go round.

But I do think society is best off with a balance between the two, if people are too generalized the society will be poorer than optimal and if they are too specialized it will be too fragile and controllable.

[phill4paul]

To each their own. But, I think it's fathers place to teach his children, both girls and boys, basic handyman tenants. And if a father doesn't have these skills how then can he teach? My father made reasonably good money as an air-traffic-controller. We lived in homestead Florida and had a pool growing up. He certainly could have hired people to do the tasks around the house, but he did it himself and imparted his wisdom along the way. He'd take care of the pool maintenance himself, the yard maintenance, vehicle maintenance, home repairs and additions. All with me in tow.
I don't really consider a "chore" to be a chore. It is merely something that needs to be done, most often with a frosty adult beverage within reach and some good jams on the speakers. Most everything I set myself to I accomplish and I do it better than most I could have paid. It's more of an attitude than a necessity. I also like the value it brings. There is no end to the DIY projects friends call me to give advise or help. And they in turn come over and help me when I need an extra pair of hands. There is good company that comes from these activities and I enjoy that.

[phill4paul]

To each his own is my opinion about specialization/generalization, it takes all kinds to make the world go round.

But I do think society is best off with a balance between the two, if people are too generalized the society will be poorer than optimal and if they are too specialized it will be too fragile and controllable.

There is no reason an individual cannot be specialized in one area and keep a general working knowledge of many things.

[Swordsmyth]

There is no reason an individual cannot be specialized in one area and keep a general working knowledge of many things.

Absolutely but for a given level of intelligence a person can only learn so much in their life and distributing it to different subjects is a zero-sum question, I favor a somewhat balanced approach.

[Anti Federalist]

None of that is correct (for me at least). It just doesn't interest me. I value my time as well as getting the job done well and quickly over the cost.

If someone wants to work on cars then boats then great. I would consider that a huge waste of money and rather save and invest it.

The underlying assumption you and AF make is physical work is somehow necessary and superior to mental work. I would rather smoke a cigar or play with my labrador retriever than change my own oil. Not everyone has to have the same interests.

I don't grow and or shoot all of my own food? Assuming you don't, why are you such a snob? Why use fancy grocery stores when you could just forage for berries for a couple of hours. A lot of this talk about how prior generations could do certain things was out necessity not out of some masculine instinct. When America was a third world country and people lived on less than a dollar a day they could butcher a hog, build shelter, plow a field, or knit a sock. They also lived on a dollar a day and died at 30. Not for me.

Not at all.

Look at Heinlein's quote again...many of those tasks he mentioned were intellectual or creative in nature and had nothing to do with sodding about in grease and dirt.

And there is a difference between being able to do a project and whether you want to or not.

Bottom line is this however:

Every time you defer a critical task to somebody else, without even trying to learn about or do it yourself, you put yourself at the mercy of someone else.

You are no longer free and independent, but dependent on somebody else.

[phill4paul]

Absolutely but for a given level of intelligence a person can only learn so much in their life and distributing it to different subjects is a zero-sum question, I favor a somewhat balanced approach.

I find this depends on the individual, also. I know and have known many that specialize in more than one area. Masters at what they ever taken on. Exceptional individuals that have more drive or brain capacity than I. I don't really have the answer for that. I find that these kinds of individuals seem to have less a need for sleep than I. They seem to function on 4-6 hrs. of sleep at night and an afternoon nap. Without ever needing a "crash" day. And they never seem to be able to turn the switch off and just relax. And none ever waste time on social media such as RPF or FB.

[Anti Federalist]

None of that is correct (for me at least). It just doesn't interest me. I value my time as well as getting the job done well and quickly over the cost.

If someone wants to work on cars then boats then great. I would consider that a huge waste of money and rather save and invest it.

The underlying assumption you and AF make is physical work is somehow necessary and superior to mental work. I would rather smoke a cigar or play with my labrador retriever than change my own oil. Not everyone has to have the same interests.

I don't grow and or shoot all of my own food? Assuming you don't, why are you such a snob? Why use fancy grocery stores when you could just forage for berries for a couple of hours. A lot of this talk about how prior generations could do certain things was out necessity not out of some masculine instinct. When America was a third world country and people lived on less than a dollar a day they could butcher a hog, build shelter, plow a field, or knit a sock. They also lived on a dollar a day and died at 30. Not for me.

And are we less free or more free?

[Danke]

A sign over my shop:

"Loose women tightened here"

[Anti Federalist]

So you're against increases in wealth in society, got it.

That's exactly what attacking specialization leads to--by focusing on a singular thing that you're best at, you maximize the value that you can bring to the world.

If everyone was a generalist, then we'd all be completely self sufficient......and horrifyingly poor.

Specialization is what brought about some of the greatest increase in wealth in the 19th, 20th, and 21st century. It allowed us to produce more food on less ground, and has allowed us to stamp out extreme poverty around the globe.

To demonize specialization is demonize economic progress; without we'd all end up being pathetically weak jacks of all trades who could do everything half bad, but nothing particularly good.

And if every one is a specialist the world becomes a pedantic, safety oriented, nightmare of technocracy, dependency and rule by elite technicians.

To demonize general knowledge is to demonize freedom itself, to value wealth and ease more than liberty.

Specialization is what brought about some of the greatest increase in wealth in the 19th, 20th, and 21st century.

Almost every single industrial revolution advancement in technology that has made all those gains possible, were made almost exclusively by men who were well rounded in many fields: Watt, Stephenson, Roebling, Edison, Firestone, Fulton, Sperry, Hammond, Hughes...my god, the list is just about endless.