My father started butchering lambs based on reading a book, and using tools already around the house (he might have bought a cleaver, but pretty sure that was a

My father started butchering lambs based on reading a book, and using tools already around the house (he might have bought a cleaver, but pretty sure that was after he'd done the first few). The first one took quite a while, but worked out fine. Did he ever get as efficient as someone who does it every day? Of course not. But it's very definitely a learnable skill. I do agree that the invasion is a bit of an outlier, although even in that case there are questions of scale. I've always loved that quote, but my reading is: on top of the everyday things, it's worth picking up several skills which require some deep study. No, you won't get them all, but having several -- and being open to learning something new if a good opportunity arises -- is valuable.