It's just wood

Literally everything is explained on the web/YouTube-- I learned this when I remodeled my house down to the studs with virtually no experience. Need to repoint a chimney? Trim a window? Hang a door? Tile a shower?

You're a single search away from knowing how to do almost anything practical... Seconds of research when 20 years ago you'd be hoping in the car and driving to the library in hopes that maybe you could find the best book/pages to get you where you needed to be.

I love this article --

As a fun aside, I am meticulous about trying to learn every little detail I can about problems that arise with both my car and my house (it drives my wife crazy). I am an extremely "unhandy" person, but I still love giving it a go.

This has led to the following two most common scenarios:

1) I fix the problem at hand after some trial and error, saving lots of money on an expensive service call (fixed a leaky sink, repaired a lawn mower, etc).

2) I make things (way) worse, thus costing a lot more money than it should (my car's exhaust system, the sewer line from our house, etc).

I'm likely sitting at a zero sum; all well worth it.

On a related note: as you grow in competence at any skill set, more things move into being "just wood." If you're an accomplished carpenter, a chair is "just wood", even though it might be quite intimidating to someone who has never worked with tools before.

The Ogaki tax office is perpetually flabbergasted that I can explain the timing for revenue recognition of SaaS software contracts under Japanese GAAP. It is a direct and fairly obvious consequence of clearly written rules which are in their published guidelines under the heading When To Recognize Revenue. "Just wood."

You know, I wanted to build a garden box for myself as well. I was unwilling to because I didn't think I could do it right. I wanted to set it up on the side of my deck, but what about weight? That's a fair amount of dirt, maybe the weight might compromise the carrying capacity of the deck... Should I pre drill holes for screws? What kinda screws? Is it a factor? I ask because if I mess it up, and I have no idea what I'm doing so it's likely, I'll make a huuuuuge and unsightly mess for me and my neighbours that I wont be able to clean up without replacing things I damaged on my journey. That's more money, and probably expensive help, and a huge headache, and embarrassment. Even if I completely succeed in everything, how do I know this wont violate some strata laws where I placed it, or maybe I'll violate some sort of building code regulation. Maybe my deck already violates some building code regulation and if I bring attention to it I'll lose my deck.

I think if you're telling yourself that nothing could go wrong, that you are not very imaginative.

the same goes with servers,

the same goes with electricity,

the same goes with car repair.

It's just wood, except that the wood was treated with something toxic and now your flowers are dead and you've got a big headache in your backyard.

"Most people let mystery stop them"

I actually find this true in other fields, or domains as well. Its not so much mystery in the more general case, but uncertainty.

For example, some people find talking to boards, or VC folks, or executive officers terrifying, because of what I call uncertainty. This sense that they're alien, or different, or not understandable. Unfortunately though, they're just people, and they often respond the same way normal people respond to things, just from a different background and set of needs / motivations.

Or, "I could start on my next project, but its so vast, and there is so much complexity. What would I even do?" But, once de-constructed, and taken in bite size pieces, each piece is knowable, and suddenly the uncertainty is gone.

Good, short piece of advice article.

“It’s just wood” is also a great description of kale.

It's not mystery or even laziness that stops people like myself, it's the consequences of screwing up. I'm happy to explore the mystery if I can afford those consequences.

Despite claiming I'm 'full stack', I've never done much in the design sphere. Everything seemed so complicated. How do I pick fonts? What's a color scheme? I've recently dived in and while it's complicated, it's entirely possible to learn. People I've never met before were willing to spend 30min of their time going through what I'd done and point out where I could improve.

Ask stupid questions* - you'll find many are willing to help out.

*After doing proper research, of course.

This is so unbelievably important. Too many people are unwilling to learn how to do the most basic of things to look after themselves.

We are intelligent and capable. We should act as such.

I appreciate the sentiment, but in this case, it's not completely "just wood":

http://npic.orst.edu/ingred/ptype/treatwood/gardenuse.html

I had this sort of moment, and it's pushing me to want to learn to build real things. Things I can hold.

I'm graduating from college and for my senior design project we can do almost anything. One of my professors asked me and a few of my friends to build a guitar-strummer for kids with severe cerebral palsy at a nearby school. We're all bioengineers, and I study CS. We had never built anything more complicated than a Lego.

After a few months, here's what we came up with: http://www.instructables.com/id/Musex/

It's pretty janky and it's something a mechanical engineer could whip up in a week or two. But we learned a TON building it. There's so much I don't know. I like building things on the computer because there's near-zero marginal cost and you can always start right away. Having to think through a real design and order/build parts really shed some light on getting things done beyond a mouse and keyboard.

TL;DR - Go build something. It's very empowering.

The author here talks about demystifying the kinds of work that you don't think you're capable of. He uses the example of handiwork and building things, but it really goes beyond that—I think this is a really good attitude to take to a lot of aspects of life.

Let me give a little personal context. Back when I was a teenager coming out of high school, I was pretty averse to diving into subject matter that I didn't feel comfortable with. I had exactly the same attitude the author disparages here—that sort of "that's for experts to deal with, not me" kind of attitude.

But, out of a combined interest in both computers and general science, I ended up entering an engineering degree that was highly general for the first two years. This was the "advanced" sort of engineering stream at the university—higher course loads, more material covered faster, and in areas where I almost certainly wasn't going to be using to make a living. Like most people here, I work in software these days, but during the generalist part of the program I took everything from thermodynamics, to civil engineering, to quantum mechanics, to fluid dynamics, to vector calculus, to molecular biology, to electromagnetics, to material science, to statistics, to electrical circuits, to... you get the picture.

I was not prepared for this in the least.

A lot of people asked me, "If you already know you have an interest in computers, why are you putting yourself through this instead of going through a standard computer science or computer engineering degree?" It was a question I asked myself very often as well, to the point where I was at one point strongly considering switching out. But I'm glad I didn't, because looking back on it, the biggest thing I got out of it was not the broad scientific background—I can barely remember much of the stuff from the more esoteric courses I took—but the knowledge that I could, in fact, learn these kinds of things in a relatively quick timeframe. That these things were not eternal mysteries, not the exclusive domain of "experts", and that I could, given enough effort, understand them, at least decently enough to do my assignments and pass the course.

I tried to keep this lesson in mind moving forward, and still try to keep it today. In my last year, I signed up for a course on compilers, not because I wanted to work on compilers but because I wanted to demystify one of the last things that still seemed mysterious in my day-to-day computer work. Once I started working for a living, I read up on some basic personal finance so I could manage my money properly. Last year, I was unsatisfied with the design of my personal website, so I learned some basic color theory and typography and redesigned it myself. These days, I've been learning Chinese[0]—something most westerners balk at doing—out of personal interest, and the feeling of walking down a street in Chinatown and suddenly realizing, "Hey, I can make out a bit of what's written on the signs now, whereas a few weeks ago it was all incomprehensible hieroglyphics" is incredibly liberating.

So this post resonates with me pretty deeply. It's just wood. You shouldn't believe that these things are beyond your grasp, because if you do it'll become a self-fulfilling prophecy. This spirit of lifelong learning is something I hope never leaves me. The day I stop learning will be the day I die.

[0] As mentioned earlier here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7623418

The article is a fun read. What I find most interesting for me is that the author needed the nudge to make the leap from "I want to buy X" to "I can build X".

Maybe it is just how I was brought up (and the friends I had around me), but myself and a few of my close friends all bought our houses around the same time. We've all done most of the non-annoying work ourselves (electrical, plumbing, tiling, leveling floors/the house, replacing joists, etc). Some of this we learned from our parents or older mentors, some from one another. We also trade labor/help. (Annoying work would be things like refinishing floors, insulation, roofing, etc).

The group of friends is a mix of software people, a retired fire fighter, a geologist, etc. When we bought our houses, money wasn't there to pay someone to do the work and we liked doing such. As we've gotten older/more established, some things are worth paying not to do (a new gas line run, for instance).

The fact remains, though, most of the things one needs to deal with in a typical day/month/year domestically, you can do yourself. Sometimes the convenience to pay someone makes sense, sometimes the risk of not being comfortable (or maybe not mechanically inclined) is too great, but there are things we pass on to others to do regularly that we can probably do ourselves. Sometimes those things can be quite rewarding/fulfilling.

When I bought my house, my dad helped me with replacing all the rusted out galv with copper. He had to head out before things were done. A couple of fittings remained in tight spaces next to very old / dry wood. I did get an appraisal on finishing off some of these; having a couple of plumbers who played up the difficulty and then give a big estimate motivated me to get over my discomfort. I read up on the right way to do things and was extremely careful (and successful) in the endeavor.

I see a lot of positive reactions here, but reading this is almost upsetting to me.

Do we really live in a world where it's a profound realization that a person can screw four boards together in a rectangle to make a garden bed?

This is some real top level science fiction stuff where society seems so crippled that an average person can't think to solve the simplest problem without buying a solution. Surely it must not be true.

That's a great looking planter bed, nice work! Some things aren't nearly as hard as people think - I took a similar approach to building an actual bed a few months back:

http://kiwiandpeach.com/2014/03/20/build-your-own-king-slat-...

It really is just wood. And fasteners. Also fasteners.

The problem with relying on HN for your comments is that it's time limited. I went through your backlog of posts and found one I wanted to comment on, "The mathematics of team productivity" but found myself unable to do so.

Personally, I disagree with your point about multipliers. The engineers that multiply aren't the superstar engineers. They're the ones in the background. They make parts to share with others. They care about architecture and doing things the right way. They do the work that will never, ever make them look like a superstar, because all it does is help other people make widgets. But without it, everyone would have had to make their own solution - or worse, kicked the can down the road. These people, humble or quiet as they are, are increasing the productivity of everyone else on their level.

Examples of this kind of work: Improving task management systems, making GUI libraries for the entire team to use, etc.

A timely article for me. I'm spending my first day sitting a custom-made sit/stand desk. Tailored to fit exactly in the spot it was designed for, with shelving designed to fit exactly what I wanted. With monitor height at the optimimum for my height and correct posture. Even with a couple of design flourishes I added and a custom designed headset hanger.

Granted this is not my first rodeo with woodwork, but the thought of getting a store-bought one-size-fits-all desk was never even considered. I even got to spend many hours in the workshop with my Dad, intermittently discussing the design, tools and approaches with life in general and hearing stories from a time gone by. It's immensely satisfying.

And people see it and go 'wow, how do you even build something like that?' Well, first you start with a pile of wood and a design on a piece of paper... trust me, it's a doddle compared with writing code.

Isn't it a better choice to focus on what you do, make lots of money then spend extra money to get "exactly" what you want instead of learning stuff because you want to do one thing.

How is this any different than buying a component instead of building one yourself. Just because it'll be slightly cheaper, better etc.

I get it if you are after the fun and I totally agree no need to be afraid, it's just wood.

However why bother if you just want to get results. Just spend $300 on craiglist or something and someone will make it for you, and will be better than yours.

I also do understand in early years of life / career it's good to learn many things without going too deep, but later in life it's pretty much not worth it unless you want to switch to something new, or just to have fun (than it's just hobby).

If you just want to get results there are better ways.

Seriously, you don't need a youtube video to explain how to replace a light switch. A screwdriver and a decent amount of curiosity will get you a long way.

Plus knowing where the fuse box is, of course...

I'm a cofounder at Hack Reactor, which this article mentions kindly but with some healthy skepticism surrounding our reported success metrics. If you're curious about how we compute that number, you can read more here: http://www.quora.com/Hack-Reactor/What-are-some-suspected-re...

On the other hand, the fact that he was ready to buy pre-made garden bed is the reason why we have all these regex-as-a-service startups.

It might be just wood, but then people are just lazy.

Damn, I did the exact same thing. I built a raised bd without any experience in that sort of thing. I guess I should have blogged about it.

What resources did you use to learn to turn wood into a raised garden bed? Or was it so simple that you just figured it out on your own?

I think what is lost today, with the ability on youtube to see how to do everything, is a common sense and old school approach of the way things used to be done. That is, by thinking about it and trying to figure it out without knowing exactly how.

The other day I was helping my wife assemble something for a school project for the kids. While I am not a woodworker (and have never taken a course, read books or watched videos) I am able just using common sense to put something together and figure it out and have a workable problem solving piece of wood object [1].

My wife insisted on telling me what the guy at the Home Depot and the instructions said we needed as far as size of screws or wood but I saw it differently, visually, as far as what would hold the wood together to solve the problem. It was much easier for me that way. Later I described that we probably would want to counter sink the screws as well and did that by simply taking a larger drill bit and drilling a bit after a pilot hole.

After starting this I decided to do a youtube search out of curiosity and found video in great detail and somewhat lengthily describing how to counter sink a screw in wood and how there was a special bit just to do that. While that amount of info and detail might be needed by a professional making furniture (and actually I don't even think that is the case if you are good you can usually make do with much less) my approach worked fine and I saved time by not having to remember all these excess details that really (imo) weren't needed.

I sometimes wonder if people who have grown up in the youtube era (or the era of having everything a click away) are somehow going to be disadvantaged by not having to spend much time thinking of solutions to problems and making mistakes and learning from them. [2]

[1] An example of this would be the jigs I built for a battery backup system I did many years ago using heavy industrial batteries. I need a pad to rest the 150lb batteries on as well as a dolly to move the batteries. I just winged it and built something that ended up working pretty well out of 2x4's. Much easier than following instructions actually. I also built the wiring between batteries by going to an auto parts store and a bunch of other things to make a workable battery backup system for way less than a traditional UPS. Would run the equipment for about 24 hours (6 150lb industrial batteries in parallel hooked up to an inverter and line conditioner. Figured that one out, tested worked for about 8 to 10 years and never had any down time).

[2] Today when you need to know syntax you do a search and the answer is there. Back in olden days you had a book or two and maybe a manual and you could iterate for hours trying to figure out which command line option (using Unix as the example here) actually did what you needed.

"It's just wood" is nowhere near enough information to stop me making a complete mess of a job like that.

tl;dr: I got over whatever block I had and built a table & benches I'd been planning for years.

In High School, I really enjoyed shop class... after graduation, I bought random small tools and handled some household work, but always had some mental block about going out and buying wood and big tools to build the things I really wanted to tackle. The first project I wanted to take on was to build a replica of the picnic table my grandfather built about 90 years ago. I remember sitting with him at that table many afternoons, planning projects, talking about cars, life, etc. So, this table means a lot to me and even though I've taken care of it, the years have caught up and it is rotting away.

I built a Sketchup model of the table in its exact form, then I made a copy and started making minor upgrades (I think he'd approve). Here's the original table along with one of the benches, along with what the updated version is going to look like: http://cl.ly/image/2a2T0S1W280r http://cl.ly/image/1j2q3P2d3V2X

There _is_ a certain process and inherent knowledge that people who shop for things like wood, tools, supplies, etc., just inherently know that seem like huge hurdles for nerds like us. It's "just wood" just like it's "just typing" for us. When we're rude to a n00b, think about what "old timer" thinks of you going into his parts store or lumber yard in your khakis asking about stuff you don't know about. MOST of them are encouraging and want to share their knowledge, but it's really up to us as newbies to take initiative and learn how things work.

I had an opportunity last month to buy some shop tools (table, radial arm, band saw, sanding equipment), so I decided to finally give it a real shot.

First, I got the equipment set up and watched dozens of youtube videos about each piece of equipment - from keeping them clean and working well to calibrating every possible alignment & went to work making sure they were all perfect.

Next, I bought a set of precision rulers, protractors, etc., and made some practice cuts on scrap wood I had in the house/garage/etc.

Finally, it was time to buy wood. I must have watched 25 youtube videos about not just buying wood, but learning about the various cuts and ratings of wood. All very interesting, and I felt like I could at least identify a good bit of lumber from the bad, and it helped to catch up on some of the terminology & etiquette of the lumberyard. To make a long part of the story short - if you walk into a Lowes or any real lumber yard wearing shop-looking clothes and are carrying a notebook & pen, nobody's going to bother you. You can spend all the time you want looking over the selection, noting prices, etc. Seriously, this was a major milestone for me to realize. I ALWAYS feel rushed when I'm in a store... there was something different and nice about taking time to pick through and find the wood I thought was going to be great. Of course, if you do this, don't make a mess and put everything back the way you found it.

Another hurdle was that I didn't think (at first) I could fit lumber in my car. I drive a crossover and discovered that the passenger seat folds flat, leaving plenty of room for 8' lumber. I can fit 10' in diagonally if I let it touch the dash. You might be surprised what you can fit in your car when you fold the seats down & give it a measure.

Anyway, with the wood all loaded up, I got home and started planning my cuts. I printed the sketchup model and started documenting everything - making notes of how I can get the most of each board, figuring out which order I should tackle them in, how I'd arrange the mounting bits, etc. Honestly, I probably spent 5 minutes planning for every 30 seconds of cutting. I don't know if that's normal, but it was actually kindof exciting to make some cuts, get out the protractor, and find that I was dead on with what the model said I should be.

I wrote WAY more than I expected. This particular post and topic really hit me though. Here are some more pics of the work - I have most of the table completed and ready for assembly. The benches are finished & ready to be sealed, though. They came out pretty well, especially for my first project.

http://cl.ly/image/3z2C2F072M1K http://cl.ly/image/0Q06180Q2y3q http://cl.ly/image/2U3f3q1n2Y1W http://cl.ly/image/1Y3d0l123L35 http://cl.ly/image/1X410N281K11 http://cl.ly/image/3g2k3j3f3E1P

Raised beds are to woodworking as early 00s html is to programming.

Sometimes I feel like I had the bizarre privilege (and, yes, I do count it as such, if only because I value diversity in experience) of growing up in the Dark Ages... and I'm not that old (born in 1983).

Up to about 15 years ago, people had to just accept not knowing things that are now easy to find on the Internet. If, to use one of the OP's examples, you had to fix a light switch, you had to call someone who knew, or figure it out through (expensive and sometimes dangerous) trial and error.

As humans, we're actually becoming much more knowledgable as time progresses. Calculus used to be approached in the 3rd or 4th year of an undergraduate math major; now, people get their first exposure in high school, if not before. The average quality of knowledge among people who've "seen calculus" is probably lower, but the bulk number is much higher, and the curve seems to be improving on the whole distribution.

I'm actually pretty curious to see what attitudes people born around now (who'll have had iPads or similar products for 15 years by age 18) end up having to education and knowledge. We came of age in a time when it was usual to tolerate not knowing a great deal of stuff. They have a lot more access. Are they going to have a great deal more confidence, or will they succumb instead to apathy as they take it for granted?