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At Burning Man I met a guy who was making...something...by drilling into a big piece of wood while his hand was on the other side of the wood. I told him he sho
by jzwinck 4y ago
At Burning Man I met a guy who was making...something...by drilling into a big piece of wood while his hand was on the other side of the wood. I told him he shouldn't have his hand in the path of the drill.
"You can't tell me what to do!"
That was a powerful lesson on the American view of personal liberty.
At a big sailing regatta for children (about 100 boats), I saw kids climbing onto a coach boat from the rear with the engine running (in neutral). Feet next to the propeller, even using the prop shaft housing as a foothold. I went over and quietly asked the coach boat driver to turn the engine off. She did, but with the most dismissive eye roll I've ever seen, and some comment about this is how they always do it.
Unlike the Burning Man guy, who I guess had a point that he was free to injure himself if he wanted to, perhaps I should have taken the boat situation to a higher authority. Dumb stuff is happening on boats constantly, but the potential to grievously harm children who wouldn't see it coming makes things different.
- gcheong 4y agoThe Burning Man guy was probably embarrassed and had a bruised ego by being called out for such an obviously stupid mistake and lashed out at you. However my understanding as told to me from a longtime burner is that safety is "third" at Burning Man so who knows.
- Jarwain 4y agoThere are a lot of interpretations of that "safety third" thing. One I'm a fan of is that safety of the audience first, environment second, and self third.
- quickthrower2 4y agoAlso the burning man man’s reaction was in character for being a person who attends burning man!
- giardini 4y agoYou were right to warn him. Tool injuries are very unforgiving. I'll bet he has thought about what you said and will change his way of working. I certainly hope so. One never knows the skill level of someone. And even a skilled person occasionally slips, loses his grip or falters with damaging consequences. As a person gets older too, the familiarity of tools may tempt one to take shortcuts. I saw this in my father as he grew older: he skipped safety precautions sometimes. He was surprised when I would warn him. But when I was a child he gave me all the warnings (more like prohibitions) so I felt justified in returning the favor. Just b/c he was 85 year old didn't mean that he would miss a finger or two any less than a child might.