6 Comments
Aug 27, 2023Liked by The Rational Walk

Enjoyed reading the digest especially about Steve Jobs building Heathkits. I built two TVs from Heathkits, one a tube type in 1969 and a solid state one in about 1980. Both were our family TVs for over ten years each. Both had beautiful color and picture. This taught me a lot about electronics and how to do great solder joints. This knowledge came in handy about 7 years ago. The power supply went out on our Samsung smart TV. I took the back off and saw it had two puffed up capacitors. I got in touch with Samsung and they had an authorized repair shop in Decatur, about 25 miles away. I called them and they said they would only replace the entire PS circuit board for $300 in my house or $200 if I brought the TV to them.

I got the capacitor specs and found them online for less than $1.00 each. Postage was about $3.00. After receiving the caps I unsoldered the bad ones and replaced with new ones. This corrected the problem. We used the TV another year or two and gave it to our son who used it for about 3 more.

Expand full comment
author

Wow, that’s impressive! Very few people would try to repair modern electronics!

Expand full comment
Aug 28, 2023Liked by The Rational Walk

I try to fix everything I think I'm capable of. I'm terrible at painting and carpentry so I don't attempt those. I do all my electric related repairs, small engine repairs and minor plumbing repairs. Until we got a 1995 Buick, I did all car repairs from engine to brakes but not transmissions. Newer cars are harder to work on because they are crammed into the engine compartment. Not easily accessible like your Mustang and the 1965 Pony I bought for my son. It was a dream car to work on. My fallback if I didn't like college was to be a mechanic. I learned car repairs when I was 14 by watching neighbors work on their cars so I could learn to fix a 1946 Jeep my Dad used in his lumber cutting business that he stopped in 1950. I wanted to drive the Jeep in 1955 off road until I could get a driver's license at 16. The Jeep had not run in a few years. I got it running and even drove it to college one time my freshman year.

Expand full comment
Aug 27, 2023Liked by The Rational Walk

tweet from Taleb and your article reminds me of Mungers chauffeur knowledge about Max Planck's driver . https://sanj2f3.substack.com/p/two-types-of-knowledge

Expand full comment

Great tweet from Taleb. Thanks for sharing it.

Expand full comment
Aug 25, 2023Liked by The Rational Walk

Appreciate the share here sir.

Expand full comment