Monday, October 18, 2010

Day 307

There was water under the kitchen sink again this morning. There definitely shouldn't be water under the sink when the plumber was just here just a week or so ago. Unfortunately, this is the way the world works these days. You take your car to the shop because it's making a funny noise and the noise is still there weeks later after you've spend hundreds of dollars on repairs. Sometimes it takes three or four service calls to get the my furnace working properly in the winter. That's just the way it is. I don't know whether people don't know how to fix things properly anymore, or if they've all just decided that nobody will pay the price for doing things correctly.

Most of the problems I have tend to solve involve computers. I understand how difficult it can be to track down intermittent problems. I often can't fix things on the first try either. Nevertheless, it would be nice if more people were able to genuinely diagnose and resolve problems instead of just following a formula.

I certainly don't want to put myself up on a pedestal. I'm sure people feel exactly the same way about me as I do about the plumber. Just this afternoon, a PDF file I had already sent to a client for approval was returned to me twice in two hours to correct spelling errors I should have spotted in the first place.

It's almost hopeless. Turn on the television and you'll hear about big banks screwing up thousands of mortgage applications. Go to the doctor and sooner or later you'll receive a prescription for the wrong medication. I think that life has simply become too complex. I can't fix an iPhone. I can't fix the fuel injectors on my car. I don't even know where the plumbing pipes go after they disappear into the wall.

Dalmatian of the Day

Watch of the Day