Behavioral Oddity amongst Makers

DMS General
#1

Been meaning to write something about this for a while, so here goes.

Most of the volunteer time I spend at DMS revolves around fixing tools, and over the past couple of years, I’ve fixed a lot of stuff. In the process of this, I’ve noticed a behavior pattern among people working on projects that goes something like this:

  1. Maker working on a project, hits a point at which they either need a tool not located at DMS, or need something special, and project work stops for a bit. Maker shifts into “Solve the problem mode”.

  2. After lots of thought, and perhaps discussions looking for a solution, sudden the big idea - “I can modify that tool to make it work” or “I can use this tool in a way I’ve been told not to use it, and it’ll solve my problem”. User shifts into “eureka mode”.

  3. User modifies tool, usually destroying it, or breaking some part of it. Maker shifts into “I fixed it look how smart I am” mode.

The odd thing about this, is the users reaction if you interrupt his thinking (yeah his - have yet to see a girl do this). For example, I walk up to a table in the workshop, where two guys are exitedly discussing how to modify a screwdriver to give it a small hook and eyelet, to use threading wire under a car dash. I hear this, and interupt - “Hey, you can’t destroy DMS tools”. At this exact moment, you get “the look”.

I theorize, that “The Look” arises, as you force the Makers brain to shift too rapidly from “fix it/problem solving” mode, to “moral judgement” mode. This causes some form of cognitive dissonance, similar to epilepsy, where the persons corpus callusom becomes electrically overloaded, resulting in “The Look”, in which the users eyes grow wide, mouth gapes open, and the face shows a complete loss of coherent thought. After as little as 15 seconds, or as much as a minute, the first vocal response is typically “whut?”.

This will typically be followed by the argument “but i’m having X problem and this is the only thing I can think of to fix it, see, I’m just gonna do this and this”.

Yeah, that eureka idea is potent stuff.

At this point, the 60/40 rule applies.

60% of those confronted will recognize the wrongness of destroying a DMS tool, and 40% will not be able to release the eureka idea, and will simply wait until you get busy elsewhere, and then destroy the tool.

This seems to happen to most anyone - from noobie members, to Board members, and everything in between.

Anyway, thats my observation - sadly, I have no solution to offer,

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#2

I believe this explains our ever-vanishing stock of flat screwdrivers. I mean, slotted screws are an abomination that should be purged from both existence and memory, but they’re still out there so we should have light-duty prybars flat screwdrivers around to deal with them.

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#3

As long as nobody finds out that it was a DMS tool that was destroyed, do we even have a problem?

…and if you hadn’t asked for permission, you wouldn’t be having problems with people telling you no…

confucious say: man who stand on toilet, high on pot

I have more helpful stuff, really i do…

#4

This is where we differ from the “hackerspace” ideal we used to subscribe to. Void all the warranties! That kind of stuff.

We used to that kind of stuff at ladybird, electronics had to tell people not to hack the rigol stuff when we got it because they knew we’d have that lurking need to add our own cool features to the scopes at the sacrifice of the original install.

It’s easy to do, makes you feel like you came up with a good solution to a problem, but with so many members we would just end up with a bunch of tools modified for alternative uses and no tools that can do the original tasks.

It seems baked into the maker personality. All we can do is tell people not to like you mentioned and then when they break our stuff we should follow up with punishment.

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#5

You saw nothing! :cold_sweat:

Actually a brilliant observation and I don’t have an answer either. Other than buy a pallet of screwdrivers.

1 Like
#6

Hmmmm…doesn’t help explain the ongoing disappearance of phillips screw drivers in the E Lab. Get a pallet of these also.

Isn’t that “eureka moment” part of that doacracy thing?
Really folks - treat DMS tools like your own. Then again…

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#7

Actually it would be better if they treated the tools as if they are borrowed from their fathers… (or mothers)

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#8

And that didn’t work. When @artg_dms and I were installing the software add ons we had purchased for all of the Rigol scopes, we noticed that the existing scope had been hacked… most of the recently purchased add ons were already turned on… Fortunately, that didn’t prevent the install of the proper codes…

#9

The one with the label that said do not hack?

MF’s!!

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#10

Yep that is the one. Why I have come to conclusion that signs are worthless. It appears a percentage (a large on) of our members are illiterate.

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#11

Absolutely. People as a large group seem to be pretty dumb. I didn’t know the rigols had been messed with but I should have expected it

#12

Pallets of screwdrivers hmm. Anyone want to go dig up around Gilly’s?

#13

A real maker who cared about others would have thought to rummage around in Metal Shop scrap bin looking for a long round stock scrap and grind their new tool… but then what’s the fun of that???:sunglasses:

1 Like
#14

[quote=“Tapper, post:1, topic:16497”]
… suddenly the big idea - “I can modify that tool to make it work” or “I can use this tool in a way I’ve been told not to use it, and it’ll solve my problem”. [/quote]

The issue is priorities. Tools are higher priority than projects.

Some people don’t seem to understand that preserving tools for everyone to use is the highest priority, even if it means that a personal project can’t be accomplished.

There was a specific instance of this just the other day. The person rationalized that since there wasn’t any other way to complete his project, it was perfectly OK to risk destroying (the jointer blades, as I recall). And was somewhat indignant about it, also. The person who tried to put a stop to this didn’t get very far with his protests.

I’m with you! How do we get the message across that it is NOT ok to modify or otherwise jeopardize DMS tools? That type of behavior might be OK at home when you are willing to sacrifice your own personal tool but it’s not ok in a community space.

4 Likes
#15

Either that, or they are very important people to whom rules and signs don’t apply.

3 Likes
#16

Actually, some folks don’t “see” signs. Somebody actually confessed to it on another thread! They didn’t notice the wording that’s painted onto the worktables. Granted, they said that they’d covered the table with something else to give them a good surface (or not mess up the table), but they still hadn’t noticed the words on the table at any time. Me – I notice every letter, and if there’s something to be read, I’m reading it. Some time I’d like to do a survey, and see if these non-readers are in the minority or the majority. Heavens knows I’ve read a sign I was standing beside to someone who asked me a question that the sign answered.

#17

6 posts were split to a new topic: A Story About a Man and a Woman… (or some such stuff about following instructions…)

#22

I’m giggling, because someone posts all the signs above my head and I sometimes don’t see them either …

But I’m like you, and I actually read all the signs that I see.

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#24

I like to think I, too, read signs. I like to complain about people on their mobile phones while getting in and out of their SUVs with angora sweaters on whilst pumping gasoline, despite all the warning signs ON THE PUMP explaining what a bad idea all that is. And then there are the folks filling gas containers on their trailers or in their pickup beds instead of putting them on the ground, like the signs say…
I did, however, recently get a “there but for the grace of God go I” moment in sign-reading. I was having some difficulty with the media equipment in a room where I was to do a presentation. Though I like to think of myself as largely competent, me and media equipment DO NOT MIX. I tried everything I could think of, and then started looking around for someone with more experience than I. My colleagues are just as useless as me, and there were 3 of us in the room when official help arrived. I was venting about how someone without my connections (I had called my boss, who called their boss, who also happens to be my 2nd-level boss, and they got sent over to help me) wouldn’t know how to get help. I asked how an ordinary person was expected to deal with this. The person providing the assist quietly pointed to the sign, right next to the controls we all had been attempting to manipulate, where it says “For assistance please call 123-123-1234”. We then had a conversation about how it was that several persons we generally consider technically competent, and who generally consider themselves readers of signs, managed to miss the blatantly obvious sign. We think maybe a more obnoxious color or location change might work, because we all saw the OTHER sign in dayglo green, just a few inches away…

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#25

I have visions of being blinded by dayglo green signs blasting their messages at me from all angles in our future at the 'Space! :scream: :sunglasses:

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