Comment by Xcelerate

I’m a data scientist, and it always surprises me how much work goes into fields that do not require a degree — easily just as much (or more) thought is required to solve “daily” work tasks.

I needed to redo a closet in my house where the original wireframe shelves were not installed correctly and fell out as soon as any weight was put on them. First you’ve got to patch the holes. But spackle will show flashing. Ok, so I’ll use joint compound instead. But there’s 27 brands and types, all for slightly different purposes. And there might still be flashing if you don’t use the right type of PVA primer. And you need the right sanding tools and, oh, it turns out I suck at applying joint compound so I have to call someone anyway to make it look like years of expertise went into that.

On to the new shelves. Well I don’t want the closet to look like I did it myself, so I’ll get some floating shelves to make it look nice and modern. Wait, $1,200 for a piece of wood?? Can’t I just find a tree in the backyard and cut that myself? Oh... I need specialized equipment to make that look nice too. Whatever I’ll just order the shelves.

Have the shelves, but now it turns out the tolerances on the walls in the closet weren’t that tight when it was built. It seems like the width of the closet varies quite a bit as you move away from the wall. So now there’s a gap. And the floating shelf metal bracket misses the nearest wall stud by 1/8th of an inch, which would halve its load capacity. I’ll just drill another hole in it. Oh, it’s stainless steel and that requires specialized equipment and fluid to prevent overheating and...

So yeah, I totally agree with this article in every way. It’s amazing anything works at all in society.