Teaching friends to build. Never again!!

[Mojo Fandangle]

A friend asked me to show him how to build pedals.
I thought it would be cool to share the knowledge.

But No, NEVER AGAIN!!

Nice guy. Cluey. No trouble with catching on. But he was convinced that he knew better from the get go.

No Tom, You can't solder the pots straight to the board if they're not mounted pots. No, don't try. Just don't.
No Tom, we can't build it in a couple of hours. it's your first build. You WILL ruin it. be patient.

Yes Tom, I know you have an I.T background, but this isn't programming. It's analog. It's different.

No Tom, you can't go rummaging through all my drawers to find stuff. We'll get to it later. Just get the resistors done first.
Yes, there is a reason for doing it that way.
Tom, stop rummaging through all of my shit!!

Okay Tom. The other bits are in my wives panty drawer, wrapped in the frilly pink ones.
Yes Tom, I'm joking. Just come back and finish the resistors first.

So anyways, against all advice, he solders the tall caps before diodes, and then gets why you don't do it.

At this point, he starts to figure maybe there's a reason for why I'm showing him things the way I am.

But he insists on trying to solder unmountable pots straight to the board. Surprisingly, it doesn't end well.

I tell him "Tom you are way too I.T for this shit. Every time you fix something, 2 things break.
"Why don't you try turning it off and then turning it back on again".

Anyways, after much de-soldering and re-wiring, it actually fucking worked.

I was even more shocked than he was.

But never again. NEVER!!!

[Muadzin]

Haha! 

Some people are willing to listen, some people have the attention span of a gnat (thank you Steve Jobs for making this worse with the smartphone) and some people are too pigheaded to listen to any advice. People always try to pass on their wisdom to others but it would seem we are doomed to keep on making the same mistakes because we just flatly refuse to listen until we've fallen flat on our face multiple times. With some sooner then others. And a little knowledge is a dangerous thing because it makes us think we know everything we need to know already. And smart people (you said he was in IT) definitely fall into that category. That ancient Greek philosopher was right when he said that the only true knowledge comes from knowing you know nothing.

It probably would have been best if you had just given your friend a quick explanation of this is what you do, this is the build order of how to solder things, now have fun, I'll be sitting over there reading while enjoying a cold one. Call me when you're finished. And once he had ruined his build come back to explain why it went wrong. Maybe then he would listen for the next build. Now you probably made it even worse because it works, so you may have validated his thinking process.

[Mojo Fandangle]

Haha. Yeah I was kind of disappointed when it worked.

Now he figures he's ready to build a tube Amp.

He's on his own with that one. He's likely to kill himself trying

[culturejam]

Haha, I laughed pretty good at this. 

[BrianS]

That's a good story.

[jkokura]

That's funny, but I hope he doesn't end up joining the forum and seeing this!

Jacob

[midwayfair]

Aww, I know you're being funny, and I know your friend was annoying in rummaging through your stuff, but I think if he got a working pedal in the end, and learned some aspects of the process, then he's following a similar path to most of us here -- I have done my things wrong in learning by trial and error, and I have also discovered some things by accident because occasionally I am willing to just do things "wrong."

The couple times I've taught people stuff has been a largely good experience -- and part of my goal is to occasionally let them mess up. Humans learn a LOT by messing up, much more than learning the correct way by rote.

[alanp]

Heh. We go through so many new people at work that I don't bother to learn their names for a few months, and I don't really bother to teach them anymore. The ones who want to do a good, tidy job typically ask anyway, and demonstrate care.

Could have been worse. You could have been teaching him to make ships in bottles!

[juansolo]

There are two types of people in this world, those willing to listen and learn and those who think they know better. Sadly you got the latter. I'm always happy to deal with the former. I have zero tolerance for the latter unless they actually do know better and then I'll listen and learn from them.

[thesmokingman]

so I'd like a word or two about the IT comments but I'm a bit busy solving the world's problems from the comfort of my couch ...

[mjg]

I ran a workshop with 5 people learning how to make a simple distortion effect.  I was pretty surprised that only 1 out of 5 people had already blown up an LED before I got to the bit about using a current limiting resistor...

The workshop was only on breadboard though - makes for easier 'undo'.  They don't have a rock solid pedal at the end, but they do have a sense of 'hey, I can make a cool noise with some bits'.     They can then move on to soldering if they are keen. 

[diablochris6]

Humans learn a LOT by messing up, much more than learning the correct way by rote.

An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field.

-Niels Bohr

[stringsthings]

Great story 

Now your friend will get to experience the "joy" of screwing up a build all on his own!

[287m]

so, the IT guy get object oriented programming and procedure lesson from solder language 
if my guessing right, php coder?
holy moly, my lilbro must read this thread. hahaha

[Mojo Fandangle]

That's funny, but I hope he doesn't end up joining the forum and seeing this!

Jacob

Oh yeah. Good point. I think I'm safe though. He's moving onto bigger things now.