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Comment by psadauskas | Hacker News Reader

I disagree, and in particular your point about "frustration", I find the opposite to be true for me.

If I hire someone to do something, and they do a bad job, I have to beg them to come out and fix it, if they even will at all. And they're the only one with the knowledge and experience and tools to do the repair, so I feel frustrated that I'm unable to resolve it, its going to be like that forever.

If I do something myself, now I've learned how to do it, and buying any necessary tools and equipment to do it was probably cheaper than hiring someone to do it. And if I do a bad job, I console myself that I could fix it if I cared enough, even if I never get around to it. At some point it'll annoy me enough that I will fix it, or it won't and I won't care. Personally, I find this to be much better for my mental health.

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> buying any necessary tools and equipment to do it was probably cheaper than hiring someone to do it

This has really driven my decisions a lot. I've found that pretty much any set of tools I could need for common home repair costs less than 2 hours of labor that someone would charge me.

Sure, my time acquiring these tools and using them isn't worthless, but I personally enjoy doing it and find that to have value in and of itself. (Certainly that's not true of everyone.)

There are some cases where I just don't want to deal with it, though. For example, I needed a new railing put on my deck a few months ago. I know I'm not great at woodworking, and honing those skills doesn't really interest me all that much; someone else would do a much nicer job of it than I would. I didn't want to have to buy some more tools that I don't really have good storage space for. My compromise was to hire a handyman I trust to build the railing, but I decided I would stain it myself.

For me, it also costs less than the 2 hours I have to spend contacting them, letting them into my house, deciding what I actually want (instead of just winging it), etc.

The tools keep costing less and less, as they're used over and over for projects. I haven't bought a new tool in a long time. Perhaps the exception is the specialized little tools needed to work on my bicycles. But even there, I can either fix it myself during my off time, or fit a time into my schedule to take my bike somewhere and then get it back.

There's work that I don't do. We all choose our battles.

> buying any necessary tools and equipment to do it was probably cheaper than hiring someone to do it

I do this, but I sometimes think it was a mistake in the end. There are often tools and materials I didn’t consider that I needed to pay for. I recently built a 24’ fence. I think I saved a tiny amount of money but I can see every little flaw. It also took me several months and probably would have been a day or two for a pro.

I don't think you're disagreeing with me so much as being a different person with different tastes.

Even better, never fix anything, live in squalor, and be happy that you could have a better life if you worked harder.

I agree with the person you are responding to and your snarky remark bothers me to no end. No one will care more about your house and problems than you do so they will often do a more sloppy job and the only thing that saves their face is their experience of doing their job more often than you do.

There's always more things that needs to be done than time you have.

In practice you always need to prioritize between

1. what will you spend your time to learn and do it good

2.what will you spend your money to make others do it worse(coin flip, it may be good)

3. or not do it at all.

The choice is not trivial.

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