Topic: work ethic

I’ve always prided myself with the fact that I know how to use a jigsaw, or wire an outlet. My parents taught me it was important to understand how things worked on your own—as much as possible—before asking someone else to do it instead.

And, while this didn’t mean I needed to understand the subtleties of efficient plumbing design, it did mean I occasionally needed to get my hands a little dirty to fully appreciate what measures—sometimes drastic—needed to be taken to resolve whatever issue was at hand. So, when I read Dirty Jobs creator Mike Rowe’s open letter to Mittens, my initial reaction was, “Hell yeah! Young kids these days, don’t know how to do a damn thing without Google!” Then, I put down my cane and rolled up newspaper and thought really hard about what he was saying. More »