I was reminded of this quote of Heinlein's And it got me wondering, not only how many people can do all, or most of them, but what others should be added to the list. I'd say be able to perform routine maintenance on the majority of things a person uses every day, train someone in how to do a task, use a computer/smartphone, dig a latrine, and raise crops should also be on that list.
Well...I've got the last one licked. Time comes, I'm gonna chant this... Just haven't decided if I'll use the hatchet or the weed whacker.
I grew up an RAH fan and that's nice prose but there's probably never been a human who could do all of that including him. Long was, by virtue of his longevity, a rather self-important dude.
Nonsense, I know what the fuck I'm doing, now quit griping and run this duct tape around that ceiling joist.
You'd laugh, but it's true... and likely not the dumbest thing I've seen on a construction site. We were doing one job-converting a victorian rowhouse into several micro bachelors-and whoever framed it hadn't bothered to make the door framehead heights uniform (usually 80") So the rocket surgeon who was "lead" started cutting the bottoms off of the doors so they'd fit...
why spend 30 seconds replacing 50 cents worth of 2x4 when you can fuck up a $200 door and take an hour to do so? for a week.
