This is a guest post by my friend of 30+ years, Dante. - Dan D.
I know something you don't know. Actually, probably more than one something. For example:
i. - How to exploit the Mikey bug in Robotron brain wave 51
ii. - Which BattleBot had the longest winning streak ever2
iii. - What the shrieking eels were originally in The Princess Bride book3
iv. - How to use simple tools to safely discharge an electrically charged CRT (the “old” acronym: Cathode Ray Tube, not the new politically charged acronym)4
Sure, but are those somethings important? Not really. They are conversation starters at best.
So why am I telling you? Bragging? Nope, everybody knows something unique.
What you choose to do with your valuable-only-in-Trivial-Pursuit-and-cocktail-parties knowledge is what can make a difference.
I’ll Go First
There are lots of non-trivial somethings I know. Here are some that might help you:
A few Metric and Imperial threads match beautifully (unlike the ones that trick you by engaging 1-2 threads before binding): I think it was the M12x1.75 bolts on my Miata's seatbelt towers that weren't long enough to thread in after I installed a bolt-in roll bar, but a 7/16-14 UNC bolt was readily available in grade 8 and longer lengths.
Home HVAC condenser unit not roaring and firing up? Try changing the giant startup capacitor ($) before scheduling a service call ($$$).
Need more poop out of your DC electric motors for your application? You can get away with overvolting them. To a certain extent. For a certain amount of time. Give them extra cooling (airflow and heatsinking) to make overvolting less abusive. But don't get carried away with such a high voltage that you promptly turn the commutator into a ring of fire.
Don't spend money on bicycle tire removal pry tools. Use the handle ends of the 2 ugliest teaspoons in your kitchen drawer.
Car power window making grinding noises instead of lifting the glass? One plastic gear has stripped teeth. Replace just that gear instead of the entire gearbox. Go ahead — take apart the gearbox. If you break it, then you just do what the mechanic would have done anyway: buy a new gearbox.
Is that old wood fence too rickety to survive a windstorm? Use eye screws and chain to anchor it to something sturdier to give it more life until you can replace it. Extra credit for chaining it on both sides to keep it even more stable. Gold star for a turnbuckle or two to fine-tune the tension — but that's just showing off, really. Bonus points for having the foresight to save the extra chain from that pendant light you installed in the living room years ago...and bonus bonus points if you know exactly where you stored it.
And I know you know some things that I don't know, y'know?
Why We Should Share
That knowledge is pretty useful when it's in just 1 brain. Think how more useful it will be in 2 brains, 3 brains, 88 brains.
I personally hit an inflection point in my personal life/hobbies/career (all of which majorly overlap, which is not only a joy for me but lets me compound my skills) where I realized that I was giving advice and solutions more often than asking for them.
Notable Anecdotes
1. The preschool teacher said that many of her tricycles' handlebars no longer lined up with the front wheels. I brought my bag of tools on one of my workdays and plopped down cross-legged on the playground walkway with a tricycle. Little Jacob plopped down next to me and was intrigued. Had he never seen somebody sit down with a bag of tools to fix something? He ignored me when I was running the usual craft activities. Was a tool bag and troubleshooting such a foreign sight to him?
Did I know what I was doing? Had I ever repaired tricycles before? Nope, that's neither on my resume's Work History nor Skills and Interests sections, but I was willing to try.
After realizing that hand tools weren't going to be the solution, I took the tricycles home over the summer, one at a time, drilled through the forks, installed shoulder bolts with locknuts, and lubed the bearings. I made sure that my kids watched and helped.
(These Convert-O tricycles, BTW, were post-war era marvels that date back to the 50s and 60s, with solid cast aluminum frames, solid tires, and rugged components. With minimal maintenance, these will outlive everybody reading this blog post. https://onlinebicyclemuseum.co.uk/1950s-anthony-brothers-convert-o-aluminium-tricycle/)
2. I coached my daughter's FIRST LEGO League Girl Scouts team. I'd interacted with these girls off and on for 3 years, but after having them over a couple of hours a day a few times a week for building, coding, and debugging I really got to know these 9 unique personalities. Averie upped her whisper to a confident speaking volume after practicing presentations over and over. Cathleen, the girl of few words, spoke volumes with her hands by independently deciding to pick up LEGO and build something useful when I was spread too thin to give her a fulfilling task. Expressive Shanaya told her parents all about how she wanted to be a mechanical engineer. Jasmine abruptly found intense focus when she pulled the other girls away from their usual crafts and rallied them to practice between rounds at the competition.
Their parents had never seen these sides of their girls. Sharing LEGO robots with them brought out new, unseen facets. And since then, they share some of their skills and tidbits with me.
3. 8 years ago, I ran a Drawbots workshop at my son's preschool. Duct tape 3 markers (washable!) to a can or bottle, hot glue a battery pack + motor with an offset weight, decorate liberally with pipe cleaners/glitter/googly eyes/felt, and you've made a cute and durable robot that will draw jumbo Spirograph-like patterns on paper.
The other day, the mom of one of those students shared a picture from that day and told us how her daughter still had her Drawbot out. Found materials, upcycle, make something that's not disposable like so many toys out there. Today, I'm still running Drawbots workshops, but this time, we had my daughter's Girl Scouts troop (who built Drawbots 3 years ago) mentor young Girl Scouts to build Drawbots.
Share not only what you know but how to pass on what you know. Sit back and watch the recursion. Teach a man to fish, or teach a Girl Scout to build a Drawbot.
Don't Focus Only on the Youth
There are so many parents with time on their hands who haven't been exposed to the mentality of “I don't know how to do this, so I'll just dive in and figure it out as I go.” Once they see this, many will catch the bug and run with it. When you run a youth engineering workshop with adult volunteers, they learn how accessible teaching STEM is. The next year, when your kids have moved up a grade or moved on the next level of Scouts, those parents will ask for a parts list and instructions to run the workshop themselves this time. Good thing you made some documentation. You just started a fractal.
When I'm interviewing a mechanical engineering hire candidate to work alongside me (especially a fresh college grad), I spend a lot of time on that brief throwaway line at the bottom of their resume: Skills & Interests.
What do you do outside of work (or school) hours?
Do you wrench on your car?
Do you fix your home appliances?
Did you build a portable mini golf course that you can haul in your truck?
Did you design and build an arena for 1-pound fighting robots and take it to fairs and schools?
Have you swung a hammer for Habitat for Humanity?
Do you fly R/C airplanes?
All these questions are really asking is “Do you have common sense, know-how, and do you actually really like engineering? If so, you're an engineer 24/7 instead of just M-F 9-5, so I have much more confidence that you can contribute to our department. You'll go far. Oh, and I want to learn what you've found out along the way — please share.”
I'm Not a Prepper
…but I have a go bag: Laptop power adapter, bag of engineering samples (Phoenix Mars lander robotic arm parts, heart implant prototypes, 150g 3D-printed robot), HDMI Cable, USB-C HDMI adapter dongle, USB stick and SD Card with engineering presentations. I'm ready to hustle to a local school and share engineering at a moment's notice.
Make your own go bag. Put into it the things you know about, so you can share them with those who don't yet know.
I'm motivated by the sheer joy and wonder of finally having kids, coupled with worry and concern about how they and their peers are going to design, build, maintain, and repair stuff after we're gone. And more immediately, shortly before I'm gone, who's going to repair and soup up my robotic wheelchair for me when I'm 88?
Find your motivation: religion, securing your legacy, achieving immortality in name, or just-because altruism.
Regardless of your carrot, the end result will be the same: you've added a little knowledge to your immediate sphere of influence.
The image of standing strong alone is a lie from Hell. — Blogger CREZ, Dec-2023
Brains won't turn any Mommies into Progs until they've first turned the sole Mikey into a Prog
120-lb middleweight Hazard with 17 wins
Sharks
Alligator clip one end of a wire to chassis ground and the other to a flathead screwdriver, then stick the screwdriver under the high voltage flyback’s suction cup (that's not actually sucking) till the screwdriver contacts the hidden wire clip — if you do it right, you won't be shocked and uncontrollably jump back 4 feet. (That's the best case, assuming you remembered to keep one hand in your pocket, but if you had your other hand on ground, I hope your heart is still beating so you can put another quarter into Robotron after you've fixed the monitor.)