by Steven D. Johnson
Racine, Wisconsin
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Aisle Engineering
Click on any picture to see a larger version.
You can spot a handyman (sorry, I meant to say handyperson), farmer, or woodworker easily in the hardware store. They stand, arms folded, in deep concentration, perusing the nuts, bolts, screws, threaded connectors, threaded inserts, elevator bolts, washers, lock washers, studs, standoffs, springs, pins, plates, bearings, bushings, grommets, and gears. You can see the wheels turning… you can see the focus. These self-reliant folks are engineering the solution to a problem right there in the hardware aisle.
These intrepid "aisle engineers" don't touch things, rifle through drawers, or sort through bins of merchandise… they just look and think.
If you watch a little longer you will see it… the epiphany… the moment when the solution gels in their mind. At once they begin to gather exactly the parts they need… no questions, no hesitation, they have it… that eureka moment when the vision of the solution to a challenge gels in their mind and they know exactly what parts they need. No fuss, no muss. Amazing.
Most of us have done it at one time or another. It is called "aisle engineering." In the aisle of a well-stocked hardware or big-box store, we engineer our way out of any challenge… we find an answer to a problem… we create something. What we "aisle engineer" is not always elegant or beautiful, but it is always functional and creative.
It reminds me of the scene in Apollo 13 (the movie) when the engineers at NASA dumped a cardboard box full of stuff on a table and said, "This is what we have to work with." They were desperately trying to "engineer" a way to fix a problem and get their astronauts home alive. Here's the deal, though… if it had been woodworkers, or farmers, or well-rounded handy folks in that unlucky spaceship headed for the moon, they would not have needed the engineers back at NASA. They would have floated weightless, arms folded across their chests, thought about the problem for a while, and then, in a "eureka" moment, would engineer their way right out of the problem. That's talent… that's why I love woodworkers, handymen, and farmers… they all have that gift.
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