Vent: I was running wire in attics for 10 years before a customer's comment made me stop

I was doing a full system in an old house in Springfield, pulling cable through a tight space above the insulation. The homeowner, an older electrician, just watched for a minute and said, 'You know, you're fighting that joist every time. A 3/4 inch hole two inches over and you'd be home free.' I'd been using the same spot for a decade because my old boss showed me that way. It was a total facepalm moment. How many other 'standard' practices have I been doing the hard way?

3 comments

3 Comments

anthony_jackson312d ago

Reminds me of my uncle who cut every board an inch long for years just because his first foreman did it.

dakota_miller932d ago

Man, that's just how you learn the trade though. My first boss drilled a certain way to notch a stud into my head, and it took a new guy asking 'why' to realize it was for a type of pipe we never even used anymore. Sometimes you just get stuck in a routine. That old way probably worked fine for a decade, it just wasn't the easiest.

dakotag262d ago

Nah, that "stuck in a routine" thing is a cop out. If a method works fine for a decade, that means it's reliable and gets the job done. Why fix what isn't broken just because someone new comes along and questions it? That old way was probably drilled in for a good reason, like safety or making sure things last. Constantly changing for the sake of something easier can lead to mistakes when you abandon proven habits.