Life Lessons from Old Machines
My time in factory work taught me so much about life and the world. We had people from many walks of life there. From the guy who admitted his wife was the bread winner and his checks were just “walkin’ around money,” to the far more common group of people living paycheck to paycheck. Some jobs paid a lot more than others, but as you can guess, there weren’t many opportunities for those jobs.
We had people with different backgrounds, different beliefs, different lifestyles, and different struggles. We had our own political system complete with voting cycles and back channel deals. There was even a job there that taught me how the stock market works in a roundabout way.
It was a microcosm of the world as a whole. Honestly, it could probably be studied more closely, but that’s for another time.
My point is that I learned a lot in a very condensed period of my life. And there are three rock solid lessons I still apply to every single day.
First, after you’ve given something an honest try, ask for help if you need it. Don’t waste too much time once you’ve figured out you can’t do it alone. Asking for help is better than being needlessly stuck. Sometimes you need help with a physical task. Some things just aren’t one-person jobs. Sometimes you need help with something else entirely. Talking to a trusted peer who can help you work through barriers is important.
Second, ego is the destroyer of perfectly fine days. If the machine is running, don’t f*%k with it.
There was a company that gave every machine it built a unique name. We had one of those machines: Mary Ann.
And boy was she the destroyer of perfectly fine days.
If Mary Ann was happy and running, you left her alone. If you thought you knew better than her, she was going to absolutely ruin your day. And probably the day of a bunch of people who weren’t even involved in your... argument with her.
Some people think being a machine operator means constantly making adjustments. In reality, some of the best operators knew when to leave a perfectly fine machine alone.
And finally, pay attention to your own line.
In mass production, like life, perfection is impossible. You can put out thousands of great products in a row and still have a bad one or two... or ten mixed in. Or something can shake loose and suddenly you have hundreds of bad products in a row ; thousands if you’re really not paying attention.
If you spend your time watching the next line and judging how they do things, you’re missing the bad stuff you’re sending down your own line and out into the world.
I worked with a guy who lived, breathed, and slept fishing, and he’d always say, “Watch your own bobber.” Honestly, it became a saying around the factory.
And in a world where everything is politicized, polarized, and everybody has huge opinions about everything, I think more people should probably do exactly that.
Watch your own bobber.
If someone lives in a way you wouldn’t choose to, has spiritual beliefs different from your own, or loves in a way you may not fully understand… watch your own damn bobber.
The person on an all-meat diet who believes in a different higher power than me affects my life about as much as a gay couple does: zero.
Because I watch my own line and I’ve got my own rickety ass machine to run.
