Showerthought: The old foreman who taught me how to read a grade rod in 2010 still had his original 1987 binder of hand-drawn site plans.

He told me 'the laser is nice but the bubble never lies' while we were standing in a muddy foundation ditch outside Austin, and I still think about that every time I pull out my rangefinder, anyone else hold onto old tools or methods that should be obsolete?

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lisa_wilson871d ago

Man, that foreman sounds like a real one. It's funny how those old lessons stick with you forever. Actually, there's a whole side to this that nobody talks about - how keeping those old methods around makes you a better problem solver in the field. When you rely on a laser all day and it dies or the battery is dead, you're stuck. But if you know how to read a bubble level or a hand-drawn plan, you can work through anything. Plus, there's something about the muscle memory of doing it by hand that just sikes you into paying closer attention to the whole site. Nothing wrong with having both old and new in your bag.