Here’s a picture of me when I was older.

And the flip side of that; paying a craftsman to do the job is 1000% better for everyone involved!

Better for the craftsman. I’m helping someone else stay employed.

Better for my house/car. Let’s be honest, I learn by trial and error.

Better for me. Outside of more basic maintenance, I don’t want to buy all those specialty tools… like that thing you use to pull a shower handle cartridge out.

It’s better for the economy. Putting money in the craftsman’s pocket contributes to the general churn of the economy, and he is more inclined to buy local where I am more likely to end up at a franchise. It’s a little thing I call Trickle Up Economics™.

Ha, my boss gives me this one. “But I’m different,” he says when I tell him about side project stuff like working on my house. I try to tell him… everyone my age I know is like that. They fix their own car/house/electronics and also do some kind of side work. You know how much a contractor costs? Between friends and family, I could be a contractor tomorrow, but not because I want to be. It’s out of necessity. I would love to pay someone else to install floors or do plumbing.

But yeah… all the evidence in front of his face doesn’t hold a candle to whatever Fox News tells him.

Some real wisdom in this one.

A related problem I see on YouTube is talking heads pruning their comments to create mini echo chambers. This is a real problem.

Then, they look confused when I tell them I don’t want the thing connected to the Internet.