this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2024
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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I was doing some construction work this past weekend, and encountered some wiring that I did about 20 years ago. I spent the first 5 minutes complaining about the crazy asshole who wired it up, knowing full well that it was me. I am in this picture and I do not like it.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (6 children)

I feel like this is just a sign of good growth. I'd be AMAZED if any single person looks at work they did 20 years prior, and said "yep. That's my best work." Maybe arts, where there's no objectivity, but anything you can actually quantify?

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Same thing in management.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

i feel like Lua just exacerbates this problem so much. you have to reinvent the wheel so often in that language, and i often see people reinvent the wheel differently than i would have.

not to mention the nesting…. i don’t know why, but just about every lua file i read has so many nested loops and conditional statements. it’s scary.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

Yup. I had the furnace guy over and he complained about a surge protector the previous guy put on (apparently put in on wrong). It guess it comes w/ the territory.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 month ago (1 children)

As a software developer and sometimes home electrician, I am so glad that house wiring doesn't support git blame, but it would be nice to know who not to hire because the work in my house when I purchased it was appalling

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Nice. You would probably shake your head at me because I still haven't fixed an issue w/ a receptical. Basically, the screw for the outlet box is completely stripped, so I couldn't actually attach the faceplate. Nothing bad has happened yet, but there are a few exposed wires.

Maybe I should go get the dremel out and fix it...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Just use a couple dabs of hot glue, or blue tack.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

I'm in power electronics and its the worst of both worlds

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

The worst, for either career, is working out that it has to be this awful. Like there's an obvious right way, and that doesn't work because of some aggravating circumstance, and the simple workaround wouldn't fit the use-case, and properly doing what's necessary would be hideously inefficient... so... bodge.

Clunk clunk get it done.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I have a couple of colleagues in the kitchen where I work who stand babbling, as if in a daze, if they see a mistake's been made, sometiems for up to a minute. Very frustrating for me, as I prefer to just solve the problem. I remember one time holding my hand out to ask for the pan as my colleague stood with it, stirring it with a pair of tongs, repeatedly muttering that there weren't enough peas in the linguine, and I was saying, fine, then give me the pan and I'll chuck more peas in, but she just kept yammering away. Really fucks me off, haha.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

The advantage of Chinese kitchen utensils, and layout is that I could just grab a ladel full of peas and dump them into the pan in such a situation. I had my own wok to deal with, but there's a surprising amount of down time in cooking.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 month ago

I always tell every apprentice i work with that they need to make sure they weren't the last guy to touch ut when they start bitching about the dumbass that came before them

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

The worst is when you're also the previous engineer

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago

So instead... You look at the situation in disbelief, cursing, complaining, scoffing. Then you see a comment line and realise it's your code from two years ago and you had the audacity to put your name to it like it might be a legacy worth preserving one day.

[–] [email protected] 94 points 1 month ago (2 children)

My previous house was a new build. I had some weird electrical problems. I called the builder and they sent someone out.

The guy looked at my panel and said, "Oh yeah, I remember this house. We had to fire the electrician who wired your house because he was always showing up high."

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I feel like they shouldn't charge (heh) you for it

[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 month ago (7 children)

I had a new storm door installed through Lowe’s and the contractor they contracted to do it showed up real nice, we talked, then he went off and smoked meth and did the best fucking job I’ve ever seen.

50/50 I guess.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago (4 children)

I had a gas stove installed by Lowe's. The guys that installed it couldn't figure out how to get the gas to stop leaking, but wouldn't admit they had no idea what they were doing. They told me I would have to turn the gas valve off at the connection when I wasn't using the stove

I stopped trying to explain and let them leave, because I was over it. Installed the connection myself, I was just happy I didn't have to move it or the old one

I did call Lowe's and let them know about it though, so that those guys wouldn't inadvertently kill someone with their installations

50/50 for sure lol

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Yeah that seems like a minor problem lol

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 month ago

There's high and then there's high on meth.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 month ago

Turns out that if you were doing software development but using wires instead, it's even more cumbersome, difficult and open to shitty solutions that other idiots before you tried out, and will also be fixed by idiots after you.

Because you know, solutions to problems are hard. And we all suck.

[–] [email protected] 137 points 1 month ago (3 children)

Am electrician, can confirm.

To be fair, I don't get called out to fix good work. If something's fucked, it's usually because some "handyman" who "totally knows what he's doing" was there before.

Between that, and the fact that most of the people involved in wiring up houses are just laborers under an electrician's supervision (ostensibly), yeah, I get plenty to complain about.

It also makes it easier, I feel, for customers to stomach the bill if I can adequately explain how much better off they are now that I've done my job.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

On my jobsite, working in new construction, we still complain a lot about what the people before us did. Everybody on the crew is a competent electrician, yet we still have plenty of times where we look at the most experienced electrician there and think "wth was he thinking??"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I feel love the ironic part is that both good and bad electricians can have the same outcome. Some wacky installation that works. The difference is that the bad guy probably doesn't know why it works and/or the pros/cons. The great electrician realizes that while it's probably not the "correct" way, it saves a ton of cost and work and is sufficient for what is being requested.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah, there's a lot of questionable work out there. Many homeowners underestimate the difficulty involved in some repairs too, so there's definitely a need to justify why it took as long as it did.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

Even if it doesn’t take long, it’s helpful for some if they get an explanation that shows your expertise. Which is lots of what they’re paying for usually.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Can I ask a question: do repair electricians often cross paths with install electricians? I don’t know much about the business of the trade, but my feeling was that the folks doing installs in new houses / buildings rarely crossed paths with the ones going around repairing everything. In my mind these are like two separate worlds.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Repair electricians definitely run into the work of install electricians, but my experience is they're mostly two different groups. Install electricians may come back to do repairs on their own work, or if there's a lull in new construction jobs they can pick up they might fill in the hours with some smaller repair jobs.

There are some some more specialized electricians that do a mix of both, for example my company is mostly generator focused. We're involved in both new construction and repairs for things that are generator/transfer switch/solar related.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That’s really cool! When you do repair work for a generator I assume you’re not just going to replace the generator, so I guess you have to get in there and do component level repairs? That seems really cool. I would imagine some of the technicians would have the skills of both a mechanic and an electrician for some of those jobs?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

Right, I'm fully licensed as an electrician but I also have to repair/maintain natural gas/propane/diesel engines. There's also increasing amounts of computer/network knowledge needed for new controllers and setting up network monitoring. Overall it's a job that really benefits from a lot of different skill sets, and has a lot of day to day variety in the work I'm doing.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Kinda depends? But yeah they're mostly separate.

When I worked for a shop (self-employed now), they had us divided into Construction and Service, and the two pretty much kept to themselves. Service guys looked down on Construction guys because they didn't know much about troubleshooting; Construction guys looked down on Service guys because most of them couldn't build their way out of a wet paper bag.

Most of my experience as an apprentice was construction. I did some service calls now and then when jobsites slowed down in the winter. Now I mostly do service calls, and, frankly, it's a HELL of a lot easier.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Sounds like the elevator trade, too

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Okay! That matches with my impression! I have a friend who works in construction (drywall taper) and the guy works insanely hard, always comes home from work covered head to toe in mud or dust, and is pretty much always sore. Great guy, very friendly beer drinking buddy! But that’s a kind of work I could never do, at least working for someone else.

The troubleshooting nature of repair/service electrical seems vastly more appealing to me, though I imagine with enough experience 90% of the faults become routine!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah I don't envy drywallers. That is exhausting work, especially since a lot of them get paid by the sheet. There's a running joke in construction about them constantly leaving soda bottles full of piss because they can't take the time to go to the john.

Electrical construction (I mostly did commercial fwiw, but dabbled in residential and industrial as well) can be pretty rough too. Other than the brief time I worked with the union, you're pretty much expected to bust ass all day every day, forever. It was... not fun, most of the time.

But you're right on the last point too - once you really understand the system, most faults can be tracked down and figured out pretty quickly. After all, electricity is basically binary - either the circuit works, or it doesn't, in which case you just keep following it back to the part where it does work, and now you can find the problem.

It's not always that simple, like if multiple circuits are sharing a neutral, or you've just got a loose neutral connection... but as you may guess, if you've got power where you're supposed to but the thing still won't work, the problem is the neutral. So... it's still kinda simple lol. There's only so many parts to a circuit after all.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And then of course you have those rare issues where the fault is actually dangerous! Just a few years ago I called an electrician to my house because the breaker for the laundry room light fixtures was tripping every time, so I suspected a short. The electrician who showed up (hell of a guy, loved to chat!) said the ceiling light fixture was wired incorrectly and the housing was live! A quick and easy fix for him but anyone changing a lightbulb on that socket over the past 30 years was risking a shock!

Of course this is only 120V AC so not the deadliest thing in the world, but it’s always fascinated me that a fault can go unnoticed for many many years and still pose a hazard. It’s kind of like WW2 munitions or something, but completely unintentional!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

If a live wire was touching the chassis and tripping the breaker likely because the chassis was grounded that would mean it's wired correctly though. Unless like a neutral broke off and touched the live chassis causing the overload?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

He said live and neutral were reversed. The ground connection to the chassis was correct though!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Ahh I see. By housing you just meant the screw portion of an edison socket.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 month ago (1 children)

That is part of my job description (SW Engineer)

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The best part is, the previous person is usually yourself.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 month ago (2 children)

That guy is the worst fucking developer I've ever known.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Sometimes I'm blown away at how dumb my junior devs are, then I think about my first project out of college and I remember list<map<string,list<map<string,string>>>>

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Give em a break at least they are learning and getting better. They notice thier previous mistakes!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

And mark them with a TODO... Git blame is telling me it's only 5 years old... Sure it would get resolved any day now...

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