Re: Musing ........ rant

Doug Miller wrote:

In article <iifmp3lldqj6u3dfm3iv8133sjg5unr5ki@xxxxxxx>, Bernardo Gui <waile2155@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Even if you are a skilled DIY'er, it is good to hire a professional
the first time you do something complex. My pride can allow me to
admit not knowing all of the fine details and techniques of every
possible task in my home improvement projects on the first time that I
do them.

Amen! Part of our kitchen renovation on house 2.0 involved removing a
large window, and filling in the hole. Redwood clapboard siding on the outside
(which I am perfectly competent to repair), and plaster walls on the inside
(which I was not). Patching small holes in plaster walls, sure -- but filling
in a 42x60 inch cavity? Naaah. Especially since the lower 2/3 of the kitchen
walls had a faux-brick pattern tooled into the whitecoat. I hired a pro for
that. And told him, when he came out to quote the job, that one of the
conditions of getting the job was letting me watch, and ask questions, while
he worked.

He agreed. And what I learned from watching and listening was easily worth the
price of the repair.

Absolutely learning from watching pros is very helpful. Reading "pro"
reference books also helps a lot as can lurking in some of the
non-dysfunctional "pro" forums.

I am something of a "certified jack of all trades" and I generally find
the couple days of research it typically takes me to learn about
something I haven't done before is still cheaper than hiring a pro.

While your time has value, if you are salary, your "free" time really is
since you can't be working your regular job for overtime pay. Even if
you aren't salary, if you don't actually have regular work available to
potentially do during your "free" time, your "free" time is still free,
even if your regular work time is $500/hr.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: so why do pros have to defend themselves
    ... I understand.-I shit my pants when I heard Teen Town for the first time too. ... retired pro. ... promoted shows, managed bands, recorded radio commercials, blah blah ... explain why you don't need to rehearse to get paid - fine with me. ...
    (alt.guitar.bass)
  • Re: Delphi 4 Pro vs Standard
    ... However, when I ran the program, it threw an exception, but it was only a misread of data from the serial port and otherwise the program seemed to run normally. ... Another weird thing is that the first time through, the debugger showed the contents of the received file, but on the second pass, where it failed, the debugger seemed not to work. ... Of course, I could just install my D4 Pro on their computer and I'm sure the Borland cops won't suddenly appear with search warrants and Uzis, but it would be nice to have the ability to maintain this application, using their computer and software. ...
    (comp.lang.pascal.delphi.misc)
  • Re: Delphi 4 Pro vs Standard
    ... Another weird thing is that the first time through, the debugger showed the contents of the received file, but on the second pass, where it failed, the debugger seemed not to work. ... Of course, I could just install my D4 Pro on their computer and I'm sure the Borland cops won't suddenly appear with search warrants and Uzis, but it would be nice to have the ability to maintain this application, using their computer and software. ... Also, if you are dealing with an active serial port that is calling that procedure, it maybe wise to put a busy variable or something in there so that you don't get wached while you're stepping through it.. ...
    (comp.lang.pascal.delphi.misc)
  • Re: Delphi 4 Pro vs Standard
    ... Another weird thing is that the first time through, the debugger showed the contents of the received file, but on the second pass, where it failed, the debugger seemed not to work. ... Of course, I could just install my D4 Pro on their computer and I'm sure the Borland cops won't suddenly appear with search warrants and Uzis, but it would be nice to have the ability to maintain this application, using their computer and software. ...
    (comp.lang.pascal.delphi.misc)
  • Re: Cant type in IE 6 or OE on Win XP Home PC
    ... >> Spybot, CWShredder, Virus Scan, Hijack This, etc. ... I even did the mshtmler.dll replacement. ... >> clear that it didn't work the first time. ... running all kinds of stuff on my machine since the day I installed XP Pro ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.inetexplorer.ie6.browser)