What makes a good mechanic vs everything else

[Kurt B]

So anyway, the painting of the car is underway. Holy *****, I'm painting my car. What the Hell am I doing? I didn't even intend to paint it. I just wanted to paint one door that had black showing through as a test...[the one replaced during my accident over a year ago. Still don't know why, after a year, black would start to show through on a door that was replaced]....Anyway, one thing led to another, and soon everything's coming off the car, and I'm sanding the whole thing at 12 am.

So, what makes a good programmer/consultant or stat guy or whatever versus what makes a good mechanic becomes clear.
A lot of the former are ferrets like me, I suspect. Coffee, cigarettes, jump right in and go go go. Euclid was probably high on ***** going through Indian and Egyptian math scrolls and expounding on his ideas of proof. Screwed up, okay, just do it over.

Recompile, recompute, redo. Do over.

But a good mechanic, like any good artisan is not this way. There are no ferrets in the pro ranks of good artisanry. A good artisan, mechanic understands that everything he does is part of the irreversible processes of the laws of physics.

Being meticulous is much more important. Knowing what you're doing before you do it is essential (chain tensioners, valve adjustments etc).

I'm philosophizing before I head back on out to the carnage.
It ain't that bad now that I figured out I need to REGULATE THE PRESSURE AND SHOOT AT A CONSTANT 40 PSI THANK YOU VERY MUCH JIM T AND VINTAGEBUS.COM

Happy saturday. I need latex gloves and some tackcloth.

[Tyson Schmidt]

Go Kurt!

Hey, if you need practice, my '72 is still in primer.

[Wayne 962]

A good mechanic has these qualities:

- Pride in his work
- Years of experience from figuring out what went wrong
- Lot's of patience, and the ability to resist the urge to rush
- Super-meticulousness and cleanliness
- A good reputation

Come to think of it, all of the above applies to heart surgeons too...

-Wayne