The tools may become obsolete, but the habit of asking questions, paying attention, and staying with a problem until it makes sense does not. I liked how the Swiss Army knife became a way of looking back at an entire life of learning.
Mate, I have been so focused on creating articles with copywriters skills in mind (and always ending in an offer), I completely forgot that it’s ok to just write a good story sometimes. Substack allows it, and people enjoy it.
Thank you for this. Valuable lessons inside, and I hope more people read. Cheers!
Thanks Marco. I really appreciate that. And I get what you mean. I’ve definitely been there. It’s easy to get so focused on what a piece is supposed to do that you start writing toward the structure. You lose sight of the thing that made you want to write it in the first place.
When I saw the title of your essay it immediately resonated with me and I had to read it. I've carried a Swiss Army knife since I was 18, and as an Ops person I think of myself as one, too.
The part I keep coming back to is the 2008 stretch: cut staff, hurt service, lose revenue. That's the thing carrying a tool for every job teaches you that no single tool can: every fix is attached to something else, so you learn to look at what a repair costs you somewhere down the line. I use that far more than anything technical I picked up back then.
True, the tools go obsolete, but the judgment and the experience behind them don't. That part can't be downloaded or shortcut, and it only gets more valuable.
Sandra, I love that you’ve carried one since you were 18 and think of yourself as the Swiss Army knife too. Ops will do that to you. 😄
That 2008 stretch changed how I looked at a lot of things. Once I could see the P&L, it got harder to pretend one decision stayed in one box. Cut here, something moves over there. And I agree, I use that kind of judgment way more than most of the technical stuff I learned way back when.
J P all the different parts of your life seem to broaden your perspective. In some instances, one piece sharpened the other and brought unexpected strength to an area that you didn’t expect to be affected. The different pieces of your life, created the whole.
I think that’s what I’ve come to see Sheryl. For a long time I thought of those things as separate chapters, but they kept bleeding into each other in ways I didn’t really realize until much later.
I'd saying writing. I remember it really having a place in my life about 18 years ago. It was a way to process what I was living through. At the time, I didn’t realize it was also teaching me how to pay attention, to patterns, to what goes unsaid, and to what my body already knows. That ability to stay with something until I can name what’s really happening still helps me in nearly every part of my life.
I know what you mean Bree. Sometimes you think you’re just trying to make sense of what happened, and years later you realize you were also learning how to notice things you might have missed before.
Exactly, yes! It's still surprising to me sometimes when I'm writing and have a realization about something. I feel like I'm uncovering buried treasure lol
Thanks Smita! I had a good time remembering all of that. Our little lawnmower business still makes me laugh. We really did drag somebody else’s trash home, get it running, and decide we had a business. Definitely different times.
JP, I think you answered your own question. The mower, BASIC, the pager, management, the P&L, sales, insurance. The tools kept changing, but the thing being built was judgment. Insurance may be where that lesson gets roughest, because eventually the numbers stop being numbers and become somebody’s life.
So what does the Swiss Army knife become next?
Maybe that is the wrong question. The knife was never the career. It was the ability to keep learning when the next thing did not come with instructions.
What I wonder is whether we are still teaching people how to build that knife.
I’m not sure we are. A lot of what taught me to figure things out came from having no choice. Stuff broke and needed fixing. There was nobody to hand you the answer. You guessed, got it wrong, tried something else, and eventually learned what to look for.
I think the bigger question is whether people still get enough chances to be stuck for a while. That’s usually where I learned the most.
I still keep a Swiss Army knife in my little handbag. It’s not the original one I took backpacking around Europe when I was 19, that one got caught in airport security. But it’s great for a spontaneous picnic to cut the tomatoes and cheese, or to tighten a screw 😀
Great story and progression! You’re so right about how diverse our careers have been and how many times we’ve had to pivot and learn new skills to complement the older ones.
Thank you Barb! I love that you still carry a Swiss Army knife for tomatoes, cheese, and the occasional loose screw. That might be the most Swiss Army knife answer possible. 😁
Y2K could probably be its own piece. I was right in the middle of the doomsday machine with an entire grocery chain that was nowhere close to ready. We worked around the clock for more than two years. Contract programmers, equipment replacements, testing, contingency plans, all of it. So yeah, Barb, you got me. Y2K definitely deserved a mention. 😅
Ahahah I’ve laughed so much for this reply. Firstly, I’m a proud ex resident of Switzerland, so it’s practically obligatory to make the knife an accessory. Did you know that until relatively few years ago, Swiss airports allowed the knife through security, because, well, it’s an institution.
Y2K was such a drama wasn’t it? I worked in community mental health and we had huge lever arch files with all the instructions and endless trainings and weird light sticks that you had to crack to make them light up (for the 24 hour residential programmes) and after 2 years of the build up…. Nothing.
Barb, I had no idea about the Swiss airports! But somehow that makes perfect sense. And yep, that was Y2K. Two years of preparing for the world to end, then we all woke up the next morning and... nothing. All that work meant we did our jobs, but it sure felt anticlimactic at the time.
Funny. I got one of my dad's knives after he passed. Lot of memories watching him sharpen it the old school way.
As a senior Gen X-er (I'm 25 days shy of being a boomer 😭) I took ingenuity for granted. We had to figure things out to get through life, period. My parents were always there for me, but also made it clear I had to take care of myself, and that theme played off throughout my life.
Which was good for me in some ways, but in others, not so much.
Twenty-five days? I think you still get to keep your Gen X card. 😂 And that last part is the piece people tend to leave out. Learning to take care of yourself can build a lot of capability, but it can come with a cost too. I love the image of your dad sharpening that knife the old-school way.
Man, the dot matrix printout brought back some memories 😂 i begged my parents for a swiss army knife as a kid. They held out, but finally caved. I definitely made a deep cut into my finger the first day I had it.
Haha Craig! The dot matrix took me right back too. 😂 I can still hear that thing in my sleep! I used to mess with my granddad’s Swiss Army knife when I was a kid and definitely paid for it a few times. Ever have one of those tools slip under your fingernail when you were trying to pry it open?!? That hurt like hell.
Exactly John. We just kept getting handed new problems and figuring out how to solve them, picking up skills we never planned on learning. Appreciate you reading and sharing your thoughts.
Great writing. Fellow 55 year old here. I thought a bit about my dad while reading your story. He could fix anything. With 7 kids, he needed to fix things A LOT! His background was in electrical engineering, but he went on to have his own business- selling modems & terminals. I loved saying “modems & terminals” as a kid. I had no idea what those words actually meant. But I appreciate his work so much more- as we move quickly through the tech world.
He had 2 partners. They each covered different parts of the country. No employees, but that human part was very real in sales. We could hear him laughing on the phone all day. He used funny tales about his kids & many pets as his sales pitch. :)
Thank you for sharing this. Seven kids! Your dad certainly had plenty of reasons to get good at fixing things. I got a kick out of the modems and terminals reference. I spent plenty of time working with both back in the day. But I especially loved the image of him laughing on the phone with customers and telling stories about his family and pets. Sounds like he knew a thing or two about connecting with people long before we had all these fancy tools to do it for us. Thanks for sharing a little of his story.
Really enjoyed reading this. No victim. No tragedy. Just good ol' F.I.O. I made a poster for FIO when I taught fifth-grade and the students knew our motto was Figure It Out. They were often amazed that little phrase could see them through so much. Looks like it did with you, too. I continue to be so proud of those that look at life this way. Just figure it out! Thanks so much for sharing this. I especially enjoyed the memory of that green & white paper❣️
Karen, I love that you taught your fifth-graders to “Figure It Out.” Such a simple little phrase, but there’s a lot packed into it. And I’m glad the green and white paper brought back some memories. 😊 Thanks so much for reading and sharing this!
JP, I really enjoyed reading this! Your ability to tell stories within your writing is 🤌🏼. I loved the whole lawn business and the print out lol! My husband has a different version of the Swiss army knife, but it has all the components you mentioned, and he finds a use for all of them.
I also enjoyed seeing your career progression and problem-solving abilities grow as your roles grew. I think overall, when you are in a situation where you are forced to think differently, ask better questions, think outside the box, and troubleshoot until something works, it develops something in you that stays regardless of whatever technology or tools change. It’s those intangible skills that can be made obsolete.
Thanks Amy! I really appreciate that. The lawnmower biz and those old printouts are fun memories. 😄
And I think you’re right about what gets built underneath all of it. The tools keep changing, but after enough years of getting stuck, asking better questions, and trying again, you start trusting that you can probably find your way through the next thing too.
JP, I loved all these stories about how you put your problem-solving skills to good use. I remember that computer paper and how cool was it that you used it for your initial business so creatively.
I definitely related to the advice your CEO gave you about shutting up when you've made the sale. I learned that one early on myself :)
Something I learned years ago that still helps me today was through the example of two really great Managers--that you can lead others and still be down-to-earth and yourself. It aligned perfectly with who I am, and when I was a Leader, it was always my approach.
That CEO line has followed me for 30 years Melanie. 😂 I still have to remind myself of it sometimes.
And I like what you took from those two managers. There’s something freeing about realizing leadership doesn’t require putting up a different personality. You can take the responsibility seriously and still be yourself.
The tools may become obsolete, but the habit of asking questions, paying attention, and staying with a problem until it makes sense does not. I liked how the Swiss Army knife became a way of looking back at an entire life of learning.
Thanks Antonio. I appreciate you reading it that closely. That one came from a lot of old memories I hadn’t totally connected before.
Mate, I have been so focused on creating articles with copywriters skills in mind (and always ending in an offer), I completely forgot that it’s ok to just write a good story sometimes. Substack allows it, and people enjoy it.
Thank you for this. Valuable lessons inside, and I hope more people read. Cheers!
Thanks Marco. I really appreciate that. And I get what you mean. I’ve definitely been there. It’s easy to get so focused on what a piece is supposed to do that you start writing toward the structure. You lose sight of the thing that made you want to write it in the first place.
When I saw the title of your essay it immediately resonated with me and I had to read it. I've carried a Swiss Army knife since I was 18, and as an Ops person I think of myself as one, too.
The part I keep coming back to is the 2008 stretch: cut staff, hurt service, lose revenue. That's the thing carrying a tool for every job teaches you that no single tool can: every fix is attached to something else, so you learn to look at what a repair costs you somewhere down the line. I use that far more than anything technical I picked up back then.
True, the tools go obsolete, but the judgment and the experience behind them don't. That part can't be downloaded or shortcut, and it only gets more valuable.
Sandra, I love that you’ve carried one since you were 18 and think of yourself as the Swiss Army knife too. Ops will do that to you. 😄
That 2008 stretch changed how I looked at a lot of things. Once I could see the P&L, it got harder to pretend one decision stayed in one box. Cut here, something moves over there. And I agree, I use that kind of judgment way more than most of the technical stuff I learned way back when.
J P all the different parts of your life seem to broaden your perspective. In some instances, one piece sharpened the other and brought unexpected strength to an area that you didn’t expect to be affected. The different pieces of your life, created the whole.
I think that’s what I’ve come to see Sheryl. For a long time I thought of those things as separate chapters, but they kept bleeding into each other in ways I didn’t really realize until much later.
I'd saying writing. I remember it really having a place in my life about 18 years ago. It was a way to process what I was living through. At the time, I didn’t realize it was also teaching me how to pay attention, to patterns, to what goes unsaid, and to what my body already knows. That ability to stay with something until I can name what’s really happening still helps me in nearly every part of my life.
I know what you mean Bree. Sometimes you think you’re just trying to make sense of what happened, and years later you realize you were also learning how to notice things you might have missed before.
Exactly, yes! It's still surprising to me sometimes when I'm writing and have a realization about something. I feel like I'm uncovering buried treasure lol
Enjoyed reading about the lawnmower and the stories of the time now long gone.
Thanks Smita! I had a good time remembering all of that. Our little lawnmower business still makes me laugh. We really did drag somebody else’s trash home, get it running, and decide we had a business. Definitely different times.
That is such a wholesome story, and the fact that it's an obsolete thing to do is everything that is wrong with today's world.
JP, I think you answered your own question. The mower, BASIC, the pager, management, the P&L, sales, insurance. The tools kept changing, but the thing being built was judgment. Insurance may be where that lesson gets roughest, because eventually the numbers stop being numbers and become somebody’s life.
So what does the Swiss Army knife become next?
Maybe that is the wrong question. The knife was never the career. It was the ability to keep learning when the next thing did not come with instructions.
What I wonder is whether we are still teaching people how to build that knife.
I’m not sure we are. A lot of what taught me to figure things out came from having no choice. Stuff broke and needed fixing. There was nobody to hand you the answer. You guessed, got it wrong, tried something else, and eventually learned what to look for.
I think the bigger question is whether people still get enough chances to be stuck for a while. That’s usually where I learned the most.
That's a solid question. 🔥
I still keep a Swiss Army knife in my little handbag. It’s not the original one I took backpacking around Europe when I was 19, that one got caught in airport security. But it’s great for a spontaneous picnic to cut the tomatoes and cheese, or to tighten a screw 😀
Great story and progression! You’re so right about how diverse our careers have been and how many times we’ve had to pivot and learn new skills to complement the older ones.
I was hoping for some mention of Y2K
Thank you Barb! I love that you still carry a Swiss Army knife for tomatoes, cheese, and the occasional loose screw. That might be the most Swiss Army knife answer possible. 😁
Y2K could probably be its own piece. I was right in the middle of the doomsday machine with an entire grocery chain that was nowhere close to ready. We worked around the clock for more than two years. Contract programmers, equipment replacements, testing, contingency plans, all of it. So yeah, Barb, you got me. Y2K definitely deserved a mention. 😅
Ahahah I’ve laughed so much for this reply. Firstly, I’m a proud ex resident of Switzerland, so it’s practically obligatory to make the knife an accessory. Did you know that until relatively few years ago, Swiss airports allowed the knife through security, because, well, it’s an institution.
Y2K was such a drama wasn’t it? I worked in community mental health and we had huge lever arch files with all the instructions and endless trainings and weird light sticks that you had to crack to make them light up (for the 24 hour residential programmes) and after 2 years of the build up…. Nothing.
Barb, I had no idea about the Swiss airports! But somehow that makes perfect sense. And yep, that was Y2K. Two years of preparing for the world to end, then we all woke up the next morning and... nothing. All that work meant we did our jobs, but it sure felt anticlimactic at the time.
Funny. I got one of my dad's knives after he passed. Lot of memories watching him sharpen it the old school way.
As a senior Gen X-er (I'm 25 days shy of being a boomer 😭) I took ingenuity for granted. We had to figure things out to get through life, period. My parents were always there for me, but also made it clear I had to take care of myself, and that theme played off throughout my life.
Which was good for me in some ways, but in others, not so much.
Twenty-five days? I think you still get to keep your Gen X card. 😂 And that last part is the piece people tend to leave out. Learning to take care of yourself can build a lot of capability, but it can come with a cost too. I love the image of your dad sharpening that knife the old-school way.
You used all the tools in the SA knife with this piece. I dig.
Thanks Carl. I appreciate you recognizing that. This one pulled together a lot of different parts of my life, and I had a lot of fun writing it.
Fun is the best
Man, the dot matrix printout brought back some memories 😂 i begged my parents for a swiss army knife as a kid. They held out, but finally caved. I definitely made a deep cut into my finger the first day I had it.
Haha Craig! The dot matrix took me right back too. 😂 I can still hear that thing in my sleep! I used to mess with my granddad’s Swiss Army knife when I was a kid and definitely paid for it a few times. Ever have one of those tools slip under your fingernail when you were trying to pry it open?!? That hurt like hell.
Oh yes, that was the worst! And because of where it cut you, it bothered you for days or weeks until it healed!
Sometimes I wish my daughter could experience the joy of a dot matrix printer.
Our kids should have to tear off the tractor-feed edges at least once! 🤣
Hahahaha ghat would be amazing!
Interesting journey. It seems most of us build our careers around the business's current needs and learn as we go. We change and learn.
Exactly John. We just kept getting handed new problems and figuring out how to solve them, picking up skills we never planned on learning. Appreciate you reading and sharing your thoughts.
Great writing. Fellow 55 year old here. I thought a bit about my dad while reading your story. He could fix anything. With 7 kids, he needed to fix things A LOT! His background was in electrical engineering, but he went on to have his own business- selling modems & terminals. I loved saying “modems & terminals” as a kid. I had no idea what those words actually meant. But I appreciate his work so much more- as we move quickly through the tech world.
He had 2 partners. They each covered different parts of the country. No employees, but that human part was very real in sales. We could hear him laughing on the phone all day. He used funny tales about his kids & many pets as his sales pitch. :)
Thank you for sharing this. Seven kids! Your dad certainly had plenty of reasons to get good at fixing things. I got a kick out of the modems and terminals reference. I spent plenty of time working with both back in the day. But I especially loved the image of him laughing on the phone with customers and telling stories about his family and pets. Sounds like he knew a thing or two about connecting with people long before we had all these fancy tools to do it for us. Thanks for sharing a little of his story.
Really enjoyed reading this. No victim. No tragedy. Just good ol' F.I.O. I made a poster for FIO when I taught fifth-grade and the students knew our motto was Figure It Out. They were often amazed that little phrase could see them through so much. Looks like it did with you, too. I continue to be so proud of those that look at life this way. Just figure it out! Thanks so much for sharing this. I especially enjoyed the memory of that green & white paper❣️
Karen, I love that you taught your fifth-graders to “Figure It Out.” Such a simple little phrase, but there’s a lot packed into it. And I’m glad the green and white paper brought back some memories. 😊 Thanks so much for reading and sharing this!
JP, I really enjoyed reading this! Your ability to tell stories within your writing is 🤌🏼. I loved the whole lawn business and the print out lol! My husband has a different version of the Swiss army knife, but it has all the components you mentioned, and he finds a use for all of them.
I also enjoyed seeing your career progression and problem-solving abilities grow as your roles grew. I think overall, when you are in a situation where you are forced to think differently, ask better questions, think outside the box, and troubleshoot until something works, it develops something in you that stays regardless of whatever technology or tools change. It’s those intangible skills that can be made obsolete.
Thanks Amy! I really appreciate that. The lawnmower biz and those old printouts are fun memories. 😄
And I think you’re right about what gets built underneath all of it. The tools keep changing, but after enough years of getting stuck, asking better questions, and trying again, you start trusting that you can probably find your way through the next thing too.
JP, I loved all these stories about how you put your problem-solving skills to good use. I remember that computer paper and how cool was it that you used it for your initial business so creatively.
I definitely related to the advice your CEO gave you about shutting up when you've made the sale. I learned that one early on myself :)
Something I learned years ago that still helps me today was through the example of two really great Managers--that you can lead others and still be down-to-earth and yourself. It aligned perfectly with who I am, and when I was a Leader, it was always my approach.
That CEO line has followed me for 30 years Melanie. 😂 I still have to remind myself of it sometimes.
And I like what you took from those two managers. There’s something freeing about realizing leadership doesn’t require putting up a different personality. You can take the responsibility seriously and still be yourself.
Me as well JP.
And yes those were true “aha” moments and I’ve always made it a part of me with success.