“A little learning is a dangerous thing.” – Alexander Pope
Common usage has altered what Pope wrote in 1709 to: “A little knowledge… “, but knowledge and learning are not synonymous. Learning is innocent, a junior eager in making discovery; knowledge is experienced, a senior body occupying space.
Learning is wonderful, exciting. “I didn’t think I could mount that bracket on the wall, but, look, I did it. Apart from those few marks, it’s perfect – and I learnt how not to position my drill bit. What I need now is a hammer drill.”
But learning, Mr Fixit, is dangerous. You arrive at the hardware store. Aisles open up. No problem: you’ve been to supermarkets and so you read the overhanging notices detailing what’s found down each. Down you go, looking left and right, until you come to the section where drills are sold. Your pace falters, slows, stops. You have encountered knowledge.
Knowledge surrounds Mr Fixit. What you thought would be allies are now confusing and opposing. What is a brace drill? A breast drill? What’s the difference between a straight-air drill and a hammer one? Do I choose a corded or cordless? How can there be so many things to make a simple hole in something? You could ask someone to advise you, but in a tool supermarket like the one you’ve chosen, chances are he probably knows as little as you. Those who know the repository of knowledge which has developed all these drills with their bits and pieces don’t come here.
Suddenly what seemed an easy task (and got you thinking that the garage could be shifted around to allow for more of a workshop) is a lot less appealing. What you have is totally inadequate: you don’t have a hundredth of what’s here. What’s worse, you’re inadequate – you didn’t even know there was so much out there.
A crisis of confidence. It can afflict anyone whose awakening interest in something launches them into its domain. It is vast, unending and expanding. Those perfect and particular accessories your camera should have, the pages of baking appliances you’ve been doing without, the camping gear you didn’t even imagine existed… . And you thought only motorheads got keen on stuff.
“The more you know, the more you find there is to know.” is very true and commendable, but it’s also a killer. Where do you start in that workshop of yours? That hammer you inherited from Dad and your mother-in-law’s set of screwdrivers just won’t cut it. And if that shiny, flanged hammer on display looks like something out of an Avengers movie, what will it to do to my thumb? Confidence evaporates. There’s so much out there… just leave it to the experts, those guys who have tool belts with hammer holsters and cut-out foam inserts for each of their spanner squad.
What’s to do? Get someone in to do the job? Watch him finish it in twenty minutes (could have done it in ten, but he took his time) then charge for the hour, plus the call-out fee.
There is a cheaper solution. We all have it – experience. Think back to the supermarket. Have you ever retreated from there because you did not know the difference between Emmentaler and Gruyère? Have you ever walked out of a fashion house because there were too many shirts on offer? Do you leave the bottle store because you cannot afford Dom Perignon or haven’t ever tasted peppermint liqueur? Or abandon the shoe salon because the prices are outrageous and the heels suicidal?
Take heart. You have survived many a gauntlet of choice in the past and will do so this time. Don’t despair of that woefully inadequate workshop, kitchen or camera. Find a friend, someone who will not slam you in the face with a catalogue of things you do not have; someone who speaks plainly, uses a hammer you recognise and can make mistakes. It may take a bit of cross-pollination, but there’s also a friend on youtube who has been there before and can make your job easier. Thus fortified, you can visit that cavernous space where the store of knowledge is housed, knowing what you need and determined to find it. Yes, a little learning seemed a dangerous thing, but what it can lead to may see you visiting that store again.
