COTD: Will Rogers Edition

The view of the world from the guy working on your car drew an enormous number of quality comments, both attaboys and waitaminutes. But it was Need_for_Sheed that came closest to the Will Rogers standard of shade-tree philosophy:

This reminds me of a parable I use all the time in business situations:

Back in the day of steam trains, a locomotive broke down on the main line, stopping all freight and passenger traffic and paralyzing the railroad. Every mechanic and engineer the railroad employed was brought out but couldn't get the locomotive moving again.

Finally, in desperation, the railroad brought in an outside expert, a grizzled old engineer who was reputed to be the world's leading expert on locomotives. He arrived at the stalled train and stood there silently for 10 minutes, just looking at it.

He then proceeded to take a small hammer from his back pocket and tap lightly on one bolt on the locomotive's undercarriage. To everyone's amazement, the engine started right up and within minutes had built enough steam to roll away, allowing traffic again on the main line.

Days later, the owner of the railroad was told by his accountant that they'd received the expert's bill for his services, and that it was for $10,000. Furious, he told the accountant to go back to the expert and demand an itemization of the bill, because the expert hadn't seemed to perform $10,000 worth of work in the few minutes he was standing next to the train.

The next day, the accountant came back with the consultant's itemized bill:

"Hitting train with hammer: $1"
"Knowing exactly where to hit train with hammer: $9,999"

The moral of the story, my brothers and sisters, is that anybody can turn a wrench. It's knowing when and where to turn said wrench that justifies mechanics' fees — or the fees of any expert at their trade. If you can turn said wrench yourself, then hooray for you, but if not then you're paying for expertise as well as actual time and materials.