Jump to content

Are you great at anything?

Randomguy

By Randomguy
in The Café

 Share
Go to solution Solved by Ralphie,

Recommended Posts

  • Popular Post
Wilbur Flahute

Wilbur ★

Posted
  • Popular Post
Posted

By every benchmark, I am good at my job.  It is easy at this point because it is a job that requires experience and a willingness to constantly self-evaluate.  I don't like the looks of the future unless the pilot is done away with.  Most European carriers and many North American and Asian carriers are suffering pilots supply and have cadet programs where zero experience individuals are hired and trained from the ground up.  They tend to lack fundamental flying skills. But they are cheap and that is what their employer wants. 

This is why we have accidents like the Air France runway overrun a decade or so ago in Toronto and why Air France flies a perfectly good airplane in a full stall from cruise altitude right into the Atlantic. The fundamental experience and skills are missing. That makes them inherently bad at their job.

The "good old days" required pilots with experience and above average skills and thought process.  That is no longer a requirement and it shows. 

I am kind of a jack of all trades.  I have built a lot of homes, am a pretty accomplished wood worker, reasonable with metal work and electrical work, can maintain a nice garden, understand mechanics, a naturally athletic body and capabilities.  A product of an era and socio-economic class that are both dying out.  So, really great? No.  Slightly above average for the day. 

  • Heart 6
  • Awesome 4
  • Envious 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
ChrisL KOM / QOM

ChrisL

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Wilbur said:

By every benchmark, I am good at my job.  It is easy at this point because it is a job that requires experience and a willingness to constantly self-evaluate.  I don't like the looks of the future unless the pilot is done away with.  Most European carriers and many North American and Asian carriers are suffering pilots supply and have cadet programs where zero experience individuals are hired and trained from the ground up.  They tend to lack fundamental flying skills. But they are cheap and that is what their employer wants. 

This is why we have accidents like the Air France runway overrun a decade or so ago in Toronto and why Air France flies a perfectly good airplane in a full stall from cruise altitude right into the Atlantic. The fundamental experience and skills are missing. That makes them inherently bad at their job.

The "good old days" required pilots with experience and above average skills and thought process.  That is no longer a requirement and it shows. 

I am kind of a jack of all trades.  I have built a lot of homes, am a pretty accomplished wood worker, reasonable with metal work and electrical work, can maintain a nice garden, understand mechanics, a naturally athletic body and capabilities.  A product of an era and socio-economic class that are both dying out.  So, really great? No.  Slightly above average for the day. 

Are there not as many military pilots transitioning to civilian jobs anymore? My Army buddy went to the Warrant Officer program and became a helo pilot. He flew Blackhawks for 20  years and is now working as an air ambulance pilot. 

One great byproduct of military training is you have to execute your job properly as the outcome of failure is death to you or others.  Sucks for those who fuck up but makes those who dont better.

  • Heart 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Ralphie Maillot Jaune

Ralphie ★

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Wilbur said:

By every benchmark, I am good at my job.  It is easy at this point because it is a job that requires experience and a willingness to constantly self-evaluate.  I don't like the looks of the future unless the pilot is done away with.  Most European carriers and many North American and Asian carriers are suffering pilots supply and have cadet programs where zero experience individuals are hired and trained from the ground up.  They tend to lack fundamental flying skills. But they are cheap and that is what their employer wants. 

This is why we have accidents like the Air France runway overrun a decade or so ago in Toronto and why Air France flies a perfectly good airplane in a full stall from cruise altitude right into the Atlantic. The fundamental experience and skills are missing. That makes them inherently bad at their job.

The "good old days" required pilots with experience and above average skills and thought process.  That is no longer a requirement and it shows. 

I am kind of a jack of all trades.  I have built a lot of homes, am a pretty accomplished wood worker, reasonable with metal work and electrical work, can maintain a nice garden, understand mechanics, a naturally athletic body and capabilities.  A product of an era and socio-economic class that are both dying out.  So, really great? No.  Slightly above average for the day. 

Don't they understand economics?  Planes and lawsuits are quite expensive!

  • Heart 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
shootingstar KOM / QOM

shootingstar

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Wilbur said:

By every benchmark, I am good at my job.  It is easy at this point because it is a job that requires experience and a willingness to constantly self-evaluate.  I don't like the looks of the future unless the pilot is done away with.  Most European carriers and many North American and Asian carriers are suffering pilots supply and have cadet programs where zero experience individuals are hired and trained from the ground up.  They tend to lack fundamental flying skills. But they are cheap and that is what their employer wants. 

This is why we have accidents like the Air France runway overrun a decade or so ago in Toronto and why Air France flies a perfectly good airplane in a full stall from cruise altitude right into the Atlantic. The fundamental experience and skills are missing. That makes them inherently bad at their job.

The "good old days" required pilots with experience and above average skills and thought process.  That is no longer a requirement and it shows. 

I am kind of a jack of all trades.  I have built a lot of homes, am a pretty accomplished wood worker, reasonable with metal work and electrical work, can maintain a nice garden, understand mechanics, a naturally athletic body and capabilities.  A product of an era and socio-economic class that are both dying out.  So, really great? No.  Slightly above average for the day. 

So scary when there's talk about pilotless planes, driverless cars...

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Road Runner Flahute

Road Runner

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Wilbur said:

I don't like the looks of the future unless the pilot is done away with.

I just hope they will retain someone in the cockpit to inform the passengers that the "pilot" has blown his CPU and, accordingly, that the seat cushions can be used as life preservers.

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
shootingstar KOM / QOM

shootingstar

Posted
Posted

I'm a good creative and socialable hermit.  If that makes any sense.  I'm happy to do something that I love for many hrs. solo...either indoors or outdoors. It becomes so Zen.  How I talk, away from business world, does tend to be creative. When my partner first met me, he had some difficulty figuring out my thought patterns. But when I get excited, I unleash. :unsure:

Maybe judge my blog is the best indicator of several skills in 1 pkg.-- story-telling/writing, visualization/artistic eye for shape, composition, line and colour.

 

  • Awesome 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
MickinMD KOM / QOM

MickinMD ★

Posted
Posted

I am a poor athlete who had to work very hard just to make teams, though I managed to letter in Football, Track, and Cross Country in high school and later coached varsity Softball, Track and Cross Country.

I am a so-so guitarist and a decent pianist, but just beyond "intermediate" in terms of classical skills, though I auditioned and played a dozen times in the ACE Recitals of the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins U. over the years, playing 3-7 minute pieces by Chopin, Mozart, Beethoven, etc. In order to study piano at the Peabody, one of the world's top 100 music schools, even in the Adult Program you have to take courses in Music History, Theory and Composition I to III, Performance, and Improvisation and that's about the only reason I'm a little better than average.

I am a very good chess player but not great, though I'm rated Expert (2116) by the U.S Chess Federation and play for Team USA, Team USA Southeast, and Team Maryland online.

But I am a DAMN good chemist. Science is the one thing I was always supremely confident about. I could walk into any science class and know I was going to be near the top - even in a top graduate school. I wanted to be a chemist since the age of 12, completed graduate school at IIT, and was chief research chemist for a subsidiary of Dow Chemical, was involved in developing the processes for manufacturing certain chemicals including biodegradable pesticides, a non-carcinogenic clothing flame retardant, and a key component of the fuel for the Tomahawk Cruise Missile. Concerned by carcinogens in the '80's, I went into teaching and within three years held an Advanced Teaching Certificate and was the lead teacher for the Gifted and Talented programs in Chemistry and Physics at Maryland's largest high school.

 

  • Heart 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 3 years later...
Kirby Flahute

Kirby

Posted
Posted

I was reading this thread without realizing it was a dredge.  I had planned my post, and then i saw I had already posted in the thread - saying pretty much exactly what I had planned to post.  Nice to see I'm consistent, but less nice to see I haven't gotten great at anything in the interim years.

  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
MickinMD KOM / QOM

MickinMD ★

Posted
Posted

For a lot of things I'm more than competent but less than a pro.  In things like piano, guitar, sports, and chess, I'm good enough qualify for college recitals, make the team, and achieve an Expert rating, but I'm not elite by any means.

But I'm a DAMN GOOD chemist, which I wanted to become since age 12.  I set the UMBC chemistry department records in the GRE's (the grad. school versions of the SAT's) for chemistry (720) and math (780), got a full-ride plus a teaching assistantship to IIT where I was the only chemistry grad student to achieve a 4.0 GPA in my final year before graduating.  I rose to chief chemist of process development for Minerec, a Dow Chemical Subsidiary, in two years, developing patented processes for chemicals including a biodegradable pesticide that didn't degrade into acid compounds and burn the skin of rice farmers in the Philippines and a low-cost process that stole 25% of Japan's market share for a synthetic fiber additive that made kid's clothes flameproof and replaced cancer-causing Tris which was in the process of being outlawed.

One day, doing a few-mile run on a Saturday and literally tasting the chemicals I had been working with the week before, I understood why Industrial Bench Chemist was the college grad career with the shortest lifespan. I loved the job but wanted to reach my 70's or more.

I went into teaching and in 3 years landed the position of teaching the Gifted and Talented Chemistry and Physics classes at Maryland's Largest High School which was also partly a Gifted Magnet School. I retired from that position 22 years later. I also, at various times, coached the track, cross country, softball and chess teams and ran the science club - including winning awards each year at the annual 5-state High School Chemathon held by the U. of MD at College Park.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Wilbur Flahute

Wilbur ★

Posted
Posted
On 5/13/2018 at 11:24 AM, ChrisL said:

Are there not as many military pilots transitioning to civilian jobs anymore? My Army buddy went to the Warrant Officer program and became a helo pilot. He flew Blackhawks for 20  years and is now working as an air ambulance pilot. 

One great byproduct of military training is you have to execute your job properly as the outcome of failure is death to you or others.  Sucks for those who fuck up but makes those who dont better.

The pilot supply has been outstripped by demand until the whole Covid thing.  Canada's military no longer attracts pilot candidates as most don't want to spend 7 years on your first and mandatory TOD.  Movement in industry is far faster and pays better as well.  Canada is now recruiting non-citizens to fill pilot seats in the military.   

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 3 months later...
  • Popular Post
goldendesign Baroudeur

goldendesign

Posted
  • Popular Post
Posted
On 5/13/2018 at 9:30 AM, Wilbur said:

So, really great? No.  Slightly above average for the day. 

Same. 

I was a good sprinter in high school (oh god did I bring up a high school reference first?) My friend went to my high school the other week to bring his kid to his first day and saw my track cleats still in the wall of "champions". I still hold the school and possibly county record of 20.66 in the 200m

I was a great jeweler. I developed a process for pierce setting square stones into flexible mountings that is currently taught at GIA's graduate jeweler program. I personally trained 8 jewelers in my 18 years as a jeweler into successful careers.

In my new renaissance as a data engineer/scientist I have been given the unofficial title of "solver of the impossible problems" I've only been with this company two years now but I have put into production 3 processes that have saved the company collectively a few million dollars, hundreds of man hours, and were all previously quoted by our entire tech divisions and "impossible" to improve/replace/fix.

We any of these extraordinary? Nah. Just methodical and concise. But that in itself seems to be something unique these days too. 

  • Heart 2
  • Awesome 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • Popular Post
Dirtyhip Flahute

Dirtyhip

Posted
  • Popular Post
Posted

People have told me that I am a great mountainbiker, cook, gardener, and soaper.  It seems that most of my skills are homemaking type skills.  This probably means I make a great wife.  Really wish I was great at yoga.  I am not bendy enough.  Headstands are some of the more petzel moves leave me like :dontknow:

  • Heart 3
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...