Using tools one task at a time

 I'm seeing a unusually weird number of posts online by so-called "trade pro's" that , in their usual "trade bro" weirdness,  are trying to shame people for not using a tool, could be any tool, 30 different ways.

Because, ya know, you can't POSSIBLY be a "real" fill-in-the-blank, if you can't/ don't use that tool in every way possible.   As I write this, my eyes have rolled so far back in my head that I'm can see behind me.

I don't care what type of tool it is, what brand it is.  If you find even one good use to apply that tool, you are doing fine.  In fact, until sometime in the last, what?  10 to 15 years or so, that's pretty much how EVERYONE used tools.

You are doing one particular task or project, and you see yourself doing it enough that "making do" with the manual tool or not-quite-appropriate-but-it-can-be-done tool isn't going to cut it anymore, so, you get the new, designed for that purpose tool.

Sometime as you go along using it only when you need to, you discover it can be used for another task just as well.  Then another, then maybe another.  Then domeone shows you how it can do something else...   See how that goes?

So, it's OK.  Get the tool, use it for only what you need it for.  Don't let the tool snobs try to gatekeep how it gets used for you.  

When you see wanna-be Pro's say some ridiculous bullshit about using a tool or a technique using a tool along the lines of, "I don't recommend DIYers or beginners (or whatever) to do this..."  Ignore that in general.   Follow the video or whatever along anyway.  Learn why they say that.

More often than not, it's not that you can't or shouldn't do it, it's about their assumption of skill or experience if you are what they think of as "not a Pro".

Use the tool.  Learn new techniques. Practice them, use them.  Your ability to have and use tools isn't limited to some YouTube warriors assumptions and delusions of grandeur. 

Don't do it out of spite or recklessly.   But you don't need to justify your uses of a tool to some jackass who wants others to think he (or she) is "special."

I really don't get this whole "tool shaming" and "shit on anyone who's not a union tradie" mentality. All it does is keep people from wanting to be whatever that particular trade or type of worker that loser happens to be.

Use it, learn it, practice it, be open minded about it, share it.  There's a huge community of people who want to learn, they want to help, they want to know more, they want to share.  You can be part of that group of people who helps others instead of shitting on them.


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