.... Humanity really is going down a road where it is unnecessary to have any skills at all. Not for driving, making a meal, or even basic thinking. I hardly see a person walking without them staring into a smartphone screen.
:thumbsup: Spot on!!
Not just basic thinking, but I think cell phones have eliminated the concept of PLANNING. (i.e. thinking things through). This is a profound paradigm shift. Example, back in the day you'd say: "I meet you at this place at this time." Period!
Now it's what I label as the "I'll call you when I get there" method.
A) No planning required. Such as calculating prep and transit times, etc..
B) No requirement to STICK TO YOUR WORD.
Now it's: I'll call you 5 more times to say "I'm not there now, but am heading that way soon...call you when I get there", followed by "I'm at location X now, where are you?" -I'm convinced 90% of all cell phone calls are strictly those conversations.
This is the reason I refuse to carry a cell phone.
There's no need to if you plan ahead.
I hired a contractor to build our house recently.
The bid we ended up with, the contractor did not follow the contract. They were supposed to follow the building codes. I called the builder many times to tell him the codes are not being followed....Lots of disagreements and I ended up making them take a wall apart to wire the kitchen island correctly (the electrician wanted to run a multi-wire circuit with 40 amps on a 12 gauge wire). Not everything got corrected, I was concerned that he'd walk off the job if I forced it. Then I'd really be up a creek. So, I contend that a lot of the problem is that the contractors just don't know and just don't care.
Had the same thing. My 82 year old mother hires a contractor to replace hot water tank. She says the new tank keeps blowing the circuit breaker. I tell her to have the contractor replace the 20 amp circuit breaker and 20 amp rated wire (#12Awg) with 30 amp breaker and #10 wire ...or as an easy out to the contractor, replace what are probably 5500W heater elements in the new heater with the 4500W elements from the old heater tank. Easy peasy!
Nope, contractor buys a new 20 amp breaker ("Old one must be bad"). Gee that one keeps popping too! Hmmm..So what's his answer: Replace it with a 30amp breaker! Eureka! It doesn't pop anymore.
I told her she better call him back to correct things. He did come back, but only to fix the multiple leaks he left when connecting the tank! (How?! There's only 2 (maybe 4) connections!!).
Not only is he incompetent, and doesn't know codes, but he's downright dangerous and will probably burn some old lady's house down someday. .
