🪚 The right tool for the job

Ep 55: Taking a break when the bathroom beckons, having a whale of a time, and lessons from home improvement.

A Tip for the Modern Worker

Take a break when the bathroom beckons. Okay, this is about as uncomfortable as we get with these tips, but this is a topic that any remote worker will know well. If you must visit the loo when you’re on a call, do so. But don’t take your tech with you. Turn off your video and audio and take your break. If others will miss you, simply say, “Excuse me, I’ll be right back,” and turn off your video and audio. As a last resort, if you absolutely must not miss a word (really?) and you do take your tech with you, triple-check that your video is off and that you’re muted.

This tip is one of 365 in my Handbook for the Modern Worker. I couldn’t wait for this one to come up! I confess: this has happened to me once. That’s all it took for it to NEVER happen again. Never ever. Oh, and I drew about this once when I was first learning to work with Procreate. Way before I started working on Funny Friday cartoons. The name Bart is not a coincidence. It rhymes with something. You’re the first to see it, you lucky ducks!

#365DayDraw

I drew this and wrote the accompanying annotation as part of my #365DayDraw project 7 years ago today.

Sometimes what we show on the surface belies the complexity and wonder of what lies beneath

I had a whale of a time drawing this, and probably an even better time coming up with the deep-thought caption. Actually, a lot of my drawings start with a big idea, and I challenge myself to think of a simple metaphor. Here, a whale. Could have been an iceberg. Or a bullfrog peering out of a murky pond. Or a plate of loaded nachos. Oh great, now I’m hungry!

Commentary

All this home improvement I’ve been doing has me thinking about tools, and whether the tools you have are the tools you need. The story starts in the early 2000s shortly after our current home was built. Amy and I really liked the built-in pantry shelving we saw in her Mom and Dad’s nearby home. We had bought Swedish shelving for our pantry. It was attractive yet bulky, and it wasn’t as useful or expansive as that built-in shelving a few doors down. I looked a look at how it was built and told Amy, “I can absolutely do that for us, but I need some tools.” And so it was that I made my first major purchases of a table saw, miter saw with a portable stand, jig saw, and circular saw. That’s a lot of teeth in different configurations! Add to that a pancake air compressor and some nail guns, and I was in business.

I also started a smaller tool and supply collection in an old Cornell card catalog. I was quickly outgrowing my yellow plastic toolbox and needed a better solution! The benefit of the upcycled card catalog is that I know what’s in every drawer. I even have a printed index of tools available for anyone who’s an infrequent seeker of tools. You see the Type A in that, don’t you?

My card catalog of tools. Yep, I laminated those labels.

I’ve used these expensive tools investments in so many house projects over the years! I just finished the flooring, painting, and trim work in two bedrooms and continue to appreciate my thirst to take on these projects. It’s still a process, and there are still key learning points: one came when I was cutting a piece of vertical trim off at the floor. I needed to make space for the flooring to fit neatly under it and used the only tool I had at my disposal: a hacksaw. What a pain in the ass, and it wasn’t even perfect! I reached out to my Dad, who is an extraordinary woodworker (and who makes extraordinary things out of wood), and asked if he had something better. Of course, he did! The flush cut saw I borrowed made quick work of at least a dozen other cuts I had to make, and also came in handy to cut the edges of rolled rubber flooring when nothing else worked. I ended up borrowing a portable vise and some files, too.

What a beautiful tool montage.

Second to doing the actual work of home improvement, the next most time-consuming task is figuring out what tool to use, locating it, and setting it up for proper use. A lot of thinking, walking, cleaning, and occasional cursing goes into these projects.

All this tool talk isn’t just about home improvement – there’s a direct parallel with most other disciplines of work. As a creative designer, I use so many software tools throughout the day. I manipulate data, sketch ideas, and refine previous designs to match the fidelity of what we expect to produce. I present my ideas, collaborate with others, and create specifications for developers. And in the world of software, tools evolve, just like in the construction industry. You have to find the right tool for the job, and that is likely not your tool of choice from twenty years ago. It’s the tool of choice right now, and that’s why professional development and a thirst to learn new things are crucial in every industry.

Chances are there’s a tool, process, or technique that’s better than what you’re using right now. Should you invest your resources in the upgrade, or is what you have good enough for the job you’re doing? The calculus is different for everyone and depends on your timeframe, budget, and how much the upgrade will level up your game.

Miscellanea

• 🦠 So, as of TODAY, free Covid tests are back. Since we’re getting into the season of pumpkin spice lattes, leaf peeping, and a rise in the communication of infectious diseases, the government is restarting its tests-by-mail program. You can place your order at COVIDTests.gov.

• 🖼 It’s not just for crafting notes anymore: ChatGPT’s gonna come after your drawings, too. A small group of testers can use OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 image generator inside ChatGPT, but it’s not yet available to me. You can use DALL-E 2 directly, but the next version is purported to be quite an advancement.