Back in '08 at the regional shop, we'd trace every single wire by hand with a toner and a paper schematic.

Now the new guys just plug a laptop into the data bus and get a full system map in 10 minutes. I get that it's faster, but sometimes I wonder if we're losing the real understanding of the circuits. Do you still make your apprentices do the old manual traces, or is that skill just gone?

2 comments

2 Comments

samf9513d ago

My buddy had a new tech at his shop who could only work with the computer readouts. They got a weird short on a classic car, and the scanner just showed a general fault code. Kid was totally lost. My friend made him break out the toner and a paper manual, took him three hours to find a rubbed wire behind the dash. The kid said he finally understood how the power actually flowed through the car. That hands-on stuff builds a different kind of knowledge, even if it's slow.

the_wesley13d ago

Forget just fixing the car. That kid learned how to think. When the screen goes blank on a jobsite, the guys who only know the software are dead in the water. But the old head who can trace a pipe run from a paper blueprint? He solves it. Tech gives you answers, but the grunt work builds the map in your head so you don't get lost.