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I am a handyman and have a lot of weird, specific physical skills. Like being able to paint around an electrical outlet, caulking, leveling concrete, juggling,

I am a handyman and have a lot of weird, specific physical skills. Like being able to paint around an electrical outlet, caulking, leveling concrete, juggling, cartwheels, tying cherry stems in my mouth, etc. The life of an embodied worker. When I am teaching anyone any of these skills, the first thing I say is “are you ready to be bad at this for a long time?” Sometimes it catches people off guard. On the other hand, if someone says “yes” then I know that they are going to be a good learner.

drtz 4mo ago
I'm not a handyman, but I am a man who happens to be handy. I have done quite a bit of painting and caulking for a guy who's not in the profession. I despise both with a passion, though, especially caulking, and I have never once been satisfied with a single paint or caulk job I've done. I feel like I'm the embodiment of "be bad at this for a long time," although I'm objectively probably halfway decent at it. That is to say I think Ira Glass' quote of "You've just gotta fight your way through" to get where you want to be seems especially meaningful in the context of something like painting, where most everyone _can_ do it (or writing / storytelling in Ira's case), but very few are actually good at it.
- sokka_h2otribe 4mo ago
  You need a silicone caulking tool, and a video. I have spent many years caulking like a fool listening to other fools who spray water and use their thumbs. Don't. Use the tool. Use the kind with a little oval tip usually (I mean, there are exceptions with harder caulks but for softer e.g bathroom caulks this is more superior.) There's one UK guy on YouTube that convinced me of the evils of water/iso sprays and the beauty of the proper silicone caulking tool. The little wedge shaped caulking tools btw are not enough, as you need some stick to it so you can get around certain angles/items.
  - ajb 4mo ago
    I don't know if it's specifically UK terminology, but here we don't call bathroom silicone "caulk" - we use that term for decorators caulk, which is much more sticky; so needs to be treated differently to silicone. Definitely true that the little tools are amazing for bathroom silicone, not sure what you do with the other stuff
mrexroad 4mo ago
Heh. I’m not in the trades, but ~15 years ago I decided to rock/tape/mud ~800sqft of my house myself… to top it off, my lighting design included wall grazing lights and a satin sheen finish and another wall that gets hit lengthwise for 10’ at sunset. That was a long, long period that tested my sanity and marriage. It was probably good enough after first pass, but my standards were far beyond unreasonable and I had to live with results. I eventually got rather good, albeit slow, and now can easily finish a wall where you can’t find butt or tapered seams with a flashlight, with minimal sanding. It took many hundreds of hours over the years, and a clear idea of what the bar was, for me to get there. The results still bring me joy, but more also the intuition built up around working with mud translated to a quick ramp up for more ambitious projects with stucco and concrete.
- turtlebits 4mo ago
  Id love to develop the skill for drywall, but then amount of mess and dust it creates is too much for me and my SO. Even if I did it off site, taking a shower and changing clothes every time is a hassle.
  - MobiusHorizons 4mo ago
    Is it really more of a hassle than going exercising or anything else with special gear? Hiking / skiing / swimming?
    - fragmede 4mo ago
      Yes. The fine dust gets everywhere. Imagine rolling around in the sand at the beach, but 10x worse. Skiing, what, you turn the corner of the mountain and there's a snow maker running full bore at you so you're a little bit cold but then the snow melts into water when you do get inside. You're all suited up but it's okay because it's cold outside. You could wear a tyvek suit to do drywall, but then you're sweating too much to do the job.
- robocat 4mo ago
  Flat surfaces seem like such a modern obsession. I feel the attraction, but defiantly try to oppose the gravity. At least you limited yourself to human scale hand-y work. An engineer type can go down some dark yak holes trying to find solutions to achieve inhuman flatness
m463 4mo ago
I had an electrician come out, it was a younger guy who owned the business and his crew. And they had these minor-superhero things they could do. Like he could hammer around a corner. You would think it wasn't a big deal, but he could put wire staples places where a beginner or a fancy staple gun couldn't reach.
- CapitalistCartr 4mo ago
  I'm an industrial electrician. I'm also skinny; people often undrestimate me. Once I had two non-electrician coworkers helping me pull some large wire and make up splices in a trough. One beefy guy was struggling with the wire, so I grabbed it, twisted it around into place. The other guy says, surprised, "You're stronger than you look." I just said, "Sure". Because of the way the strands are laid, wire has a direction and way it "wants" to go. I'd been an electrician twenty years by that point and knew how to work it. Not strength. Not that I said any of that.
  - doubled112 4mo ago
    I think some call that “old man strength”. Might not be as strong or fast as he used to be, but knows how to do it smartly. Sometimes the problem truly requires strength and brute force, but not usually. Even something like taking up concrete. It seems straight forward but you can waste a lot of energy hitting the wrong places.
    - imp0cat 4mo ago
      Also using all your motor units to their full capacity (the "invisible" strength) helps. Which usually requires at least some training.
    - Ntrails 4mo ago
      > Might not be as strong or fast [..] knows how to do it smartly. Friend of mine worked in Prisons for a while, and has a way of telling the difference between people with a lot of muscle and people who know how leverage their musculature to high effect.
virgil_disgr4ce 4mo ago
> “are you ready to be bad at this for a long time?” Oh, I love this so much. It communicates so many important things in one go. My kids must be absolutely sick of me saying in a dozen different ways "you just have to do it a lot." This also reminds me of how I've often responded when people ask me about learning to code. I ask them if they're ok with sitting in front of a computer for many hours. It sounds obvious, but most people (in my experience) simply aren't ok with that, and hadn't considered it.
- anonymous_sorry 4mo ago
  > ...when people ask me about learning to code. I ask them if they're ok with sitting in front of a computer for many hours. I wonder if this puts people off who shouldn't be put off. I certainly don't think I'd want that for myself if asked. But coding doesn't feel like that. Sure, I sit in front of a computer for hours, but productive sessions generally involve losing track of time and realising you've been sat there for hours
smitty1e 4mo ago
"Everything's easy, when you know how to do it; it's that learning curve..."--me.
giwook 4mo ago
Out of curiosity, what brings you to Hacker News?
- justonceokay 4mo ago
  I programmed for 15 years and I like watching the dumpster fire. This is one of the better managed forums on the internet, so even though I don’t do that job anymore it’s nice to check in.
  - giwook 4mo ago
    (there's an email on my profile if you'd be open to chatting about it sometime. I only ask because I'm curious about making a similar transition)
  - giwook 4mo ago
    [dead]
Eddy_Viscosity2 4mo ago
During the pandemic I decided (for no particular reason) to learn how to do a handstand. A proper full straight up one. These are much harder to do then they appear especially as an adult. They aren't physically difficult in terms of strength, its just you have so little contact area to correct with your hands and your brain does not know how to deal with this. It was a long time of doing it badly before it slowly clicked in.

drtz 4mo ago

I'm not a handyman, but I am a man who happens to be handy. I have done quite a bit of painting and caulking for a guy who's not in the profession. I despise both with a passion, though, especially caulking, and I have never once been satisfied with a single paint or caulk job I've done. I feel like I'm the embodiment of "be bad at this for a long time," although I'm objectively probably halfway decent at it. That is to say I think Ira Glass' quote of "You've just gotta fight your way through" to get where you want to be seems especially meaningful in the context of something like painting, where most everyone _can_ do it (or writing / storytelling in Ira's case), but very few are actually good at it.

sokka_h2otribe 4mo ago
You need a silicone caulking tool, and a video. I have spent many years caulking like a fool listening to other fools who spray water and use their thumbs. Don't. Use the tool. Use the kind with a little oval tip usually (I mean, there are exceptions with harder caulks but for softer e.g bathroom caulks this is more superior.) There's one UK guy on YouTube that convinced me of the evils of water/iso sprays and the beauty of the proper silicone caulking tool. The little wedge shaped caulking tools btw are not enough, as you need some stick to it so you can get around certain angles/items.
- ajb 4mo ago
  I don't know if it's specifically UK terminology, but here we don't call bathroom silicone "caulk" - we use that term for decorators caulk, which is much more sticky; so needs to be treated differently to silicone. Definitely true that the little tools are amazing for bathroom silicone, not sure what you do with the other stuff

mrexroad 4mo ago

Heh. I’m not in the trades, but ~15 years ago I decided to rock/tape/mud ~800sqft of my house myself… to top it off, my lighting design included wall grazing lights and a satin sheen finish and another wall that gets hit lengthwise for 10’ at sunset. That was a long, long period that tested my sanity and marriage. It was probably good enough after first pass, but my standards were far beyond unreasonable and I had to live with results. I eventually got rather good, albeit slow, and now can easily finish a wall where you can’t find butt or tapered seams with a flashlight, with minimal sanding. It took many hundreds of hours over the years, and a clear idea of what the bar was, for me to get there. The results still bring me joy, but more also the intuition built up around working with mud translated to a quick ramp up for more ambitious projects with stucco and concrete.

turtlebits 4mo ago
Id love to develop the skill for drywall, but then amount of mess and dust it creates is too much for me and my SO. Even if I did it off site, taking a shower and changing clothes every time is a hassle.
- MobiusHorizons 4mo ago
  Is it really more of a hassle than going exercising or anything else with special gear? Hiking / skiing / swimming?
  - fragmede 4mo ago
    Yes. The fine dust gets everywhere. Imagine rolling around in the sand at the beach, but 10x worse. Skiing, what, you turn the corner of the mountain and there's a snow maker running full bore at you so you're a little bit cold but then the snow melts into water when you do get inside. You're all suited up but it's okay because it's cold outside. You could wear a tyvek suit to do drywall, but then you're sweating too much to do the job.
robocat 4mo ago
Flat surfaces seem like such a modern obsession. I feel the attraction, but defiantly try to oppose the gravity. At least you limited yourself to human scale hand-y work. An engineer type can go down some dark yak holes trying to find solutions to achieve inhuman flatness

m463 4mo ago

I had an electrician come out, it was a younger guy who owned the business and his crew. And they had these minor-superhero things they could do. Like he could hammer around a corner. You would think it wasn't a big deal, but he could put wire staples places where a beginner or a fancy staple gun couldn't reach.

CapitalistCartr 4mo ago
I'm an industrial electrician. I'm also skinny; people often undrestimate me. Once I had two non-electrician coworkers helping me pull some large wire and make up splices in a trough. One beefy guy was struggling with the wire, so I grabbed it, twisted it around into place. The other guy says, surprised, "You're stronger than you look." I just said, "Sure". Because of the way the strands are laid, wire has a direction and way it "wants" to go. I'd been an electrician twenty years by that point and knew how to work it. Not strength. Not that I said any of that.
- doubled112 4mo ago
  I think some call that “old man strength”. Might not be as strong or fast as he used to be, but knows how to do it smartly. Sometimes the problem truly requires strength and brute force, but not usually. Even something like taking up concrete. It seems straight forward but you can waste a lot of energy hitting the wrong places.
  - imp0cat 4mo ago
    Also using all your motor units to their full capacity (the "invisible" strength) helps. Which usually requires at least some training.
  - Ntrails 4mo ago
    > Might not be as strong or fast [..] knows how to do it smartly. Friend of mine worked in Prisons for a while, and has a way of telling the difference between people with a lot of muscle and people who know how leverage their musculature to high effect.

virgil_disgr4ce 4mo ago

> “are you ready to be bad at this for a long time?” Oh, I love this so much. It communicates so many important things in one go. My kids must be absolutely sick of me saying in a dozen different ways "you just have to do it a lot." This also reminds me of how I've often responded when people ask me about learning to code. I ask them if they're ok with sitting in front of a computer for many hours. It sounds obvious, but most people (in my experience) simply aren't ok with that, and hadn't considered it.

anonymous_sorry 4mo ago
> ...when people ask me about learning to code. I ask them if they're ok with sitting in front of a computer for many hours. I wonder if this puts people off who shouldn't be put off. I certainly don't think I'd want that for myself if asked. But coding doesn't feel like that. Sure, I sit in front of a computer for hours, but productive sessions generally involve losing track of time and realising you've been sat there for hours

smitty1e 4mo ago

"Everything's easy, when you know how to do it; it's that learning curve..."--me.

giwook 4mo ago

Out of curiosity, what brings you to Hacker News?

justonceokay 4mo ago
I programmed for 15 years and I like watching the dumpster fire. This is one of the better managed forums on the internet, so even though I don’t do that job anymore it’s nice to check in.
- giwook 4mo ago
  (there's an email on my profile if you'd be open to chatting about it sometime. I only ask because I'm curious about making a similar transition)
- giwook 4mo ago
  [dead]

Eddy_Viscosity2 4mo ago

During the pandemic I decided (for no particular reason) to learn how to do a handstand. A proper full straight up one. These are much harder to do then they appear especially as an adult. They aren't physically difficult in terms of strength, its just you have so little contact area to correct with your hands and your brain does not know how to deal with this. It was a long time of doing it badly before it slowly clicked in.