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Comment by ryandrake | Hacker News Reader

When I tell people in the office I fix my own cars, built a shed in my backyard, replaced the pumps in my hot tub, and do all my home remodeling, they look at me as if i have horns growing out of my head. My old man slaughtered his own hogs for food and built his own house, and his father helped build the Empire State Building. How are we losing practical manual labor skills generation by generation? I’ve vowed that my daughter will learn how to use every tool in my garage, effectively and safely.

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It's great that you have these skills, but it's unsurprising that lots of people don't bother anymore. Nobody really needs to build a shed or fix a car themselves anymore.

I say this having been raised by a loving immigrant dad who was forever tinkering in the garage. We had the worst of both worlds; we were reluctant to ever hire a professional because Dad could fix it, and Dad had an ever-growing list of things to fix, and less energy to fix them as the years piled on. He left us with two half-fixed cars, a half-finished shed, a jury-rigged pump system for rainy season, and an overgrown yard.

It's ok to have somebody else mow the lawn.

"Nobody really needs to build a shed or fix a car themselves anymore."

It's true until it's not. Many well-off people were trying to cut all kinds of costs after their pay got cut or jobs lost during the Great Recession. Quite a few people down here were saving money hunting deer, raising chickens, fixing their own cars/homes, etc. Some of these skills can be good to have just in case.

Because we have allowed 'the market' to control what skills we value and we have become increasingly specialized, probably to our own detriment. No matter how valuable it may be to have practice in many skills and tools and physical feats, according to the modern market it ain't worth shit if it isn't earning more money than whatever 'specialized' labor you can perform. Self-reliance, sustainability and being frugal are valued less than chasing the market with long specialized work hours and trying to purchase the lost time back through rampant consumerism and selfish convenience, whether that is what you like or not.

Time is at a premium which makes gaining more knowledge, skills, and physical aptitudes outside of your paid labors a luxury. Perhaps if people were working a 30 hour week and making enough to sustain themselves they would have more time to have such hobbys and ambitions, but most jobs that pay enough to thrive off 30 paid hours a week require far more than just 30 hours a week of work to stay employed. And most jobs that do have people working only 30 hours a week usually don't pay enough to comfortably sustain somebody.

Also daylight freetime.

I have a pretty fixed amount of freetime in the evening, but good luck doing carpentry or masonry at 8pm to any purpose (I mean, you could probably sound insulate a room enough to enable it as a hobby, but you won't be fixing up your house yourself).

I repost this, might be relevant here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8280379

That's the same reaction I get most of the time, especially when they're closer to my age. Every once in a while they'll respond in appreciation, but the knee jerk reaction for a lot of people is to cock an eyebrow. I guess that's what happens when we code up these apps that allow people to just order whatever they want through their phones and never have to do anything themselves.

Really?? Because when my coworkers and I meet someone like this we are all amazed and respectful. No offense, but I have a hard time believing that people become the worst versions of themselves because of your private behavior. Sorry to be so curt, but I’m tired of this sort of circle jerking going on in HN as of late. what you say may be true, but this sort of commentary is rampant lately.

Nobody turns into “the worst versions of themselves” but a common attitude is: why would you do these things when there are other kinds of people who do it for you as their job? And: you must have a lot more free time than I! No insults or derision, just surprise. It’s definitely different than 20 years ago. Back then everyone I hung out with used to tinker and had a closet full of tools you could borrow. Now it seems nobody’s into it. They even have a special “makers” label for people who like to build things as a hobby.

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