Quote:
Originally Posted by RP
Of course that's true, but there are also those who growing up were taught a sort of helplessness and were never exposed to the notion of fixing something - it was always call the guy to fix this or that. So fixing something was always some black box mystery as opposed to taking the time to figure out how something worked and then why it wasn't working...
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This ^^^^
Anybody with average intelligence and dexterity can LEARN to do this kind of thing IF the person is motivated to do so. I learned about plumbing, for example when I had my house that was built in the early 1920s. I would remove the offending part, bring to a local shop (now closed, unfortunately) and ask them what to do with it. They would provide the part and explain what I had to do. I would then go home and do it. I did similar with my car back then (when we still had carburetors).
When my wife and I decided that our condo was for us, rather than for entertaining, we turned the dining room into her sewing room. We got a bid for floor-to-ceiling cabinets with drawers and doors from a company that did that kind of work. This was in the early 1990s. They wanted somewhere between $11,000 and $14,000 to do it. I did it myself over a week of evenings for around $600.
Even in our condo, I most often do my own repairs. Each homeowner in the building is responsible for the inside of their unit, while the association as a whole is responsible for the public areas.
I could never afford to hire somebody to do this kind of work, so I learned to do it myself. I still maintain that nobody is truly "mechanically challenged" or whatever the "correct" term is these days, that they can't figure it out for themselves. Overhauling an engine is one thing, but changing oil and brake pads and routine maintenance is another, and is very possible for anybody who cares to learn. The same holds true for basic home repairs and that sort of thing. If a person is independently wealthy and can afford to hire this stuff out, that is one thing. But for those of us with normal middle or lower class incomes, I can't imagine being able to afford that.
To me, the same holds true for learning a musical instrument (since this is a guitar forum). There are very, very few people who are really tone deaf. If a person can tell the difference between the melodies for "Happy Birthday" and "Jingle Bells", he or she is not tone deaf. Anyone with average intelligence and dexterity can learn to play an instrument. The key is whether or not the person has the DESIRE to do so.
Nothing wrong with not wanting to do these things, but saying one doesn't have the potential is really selling that person way short of what a normal human being is capable of. In short, we are far more capable than we give ourselves credit for. That should be taken as a compliment to all of us, and possibly incentive for at least some, to give it a try.
Tony