9 Responses to “If Bill Had a Hammer…”

1. 

   Larynxa says:
   

   March 17, 2010

   Ooh, ADD and “Imposter Syndrome”! This just gets better and better.

2. 

   Larynxa says:
   

   March 31, 2010

   I once assembled an entire Ikrappa wardrobe, before I realized that it was the wrong size. What’s worse is that I’d done what my dad had taught me—I’d used carpenter’s glue as well as the plugs & screws that the wardrobe had come with, to make the thing permanent. So there was no way I could disassemble it.

   Problem 2 was that the item had been delivered, so this would mean another delivery call. I phoned Ikrappa and explained the glue issue, and they said that the item could be used for scrap, but I’d still have to dismantle it so it would fit into the truck.

   So I had to build, destroy, and build another wardrobe, to get the one I now have. I was following the instructions, but my spatial awareness was seriously off.

   Yesterday, I bought one of Ikrappa’s tiniest task chairs. Its name is Rudolf. I put it together just fine, on the first try. But then, it’s not as big & complicated as a wardrobe.

3. 

   Nimthiriel says:
   

   June 19, 2010

   I’m fortunate that my father showed me a few tricks to assembling furniture (eg first lay all the pieces out on the floor, roughly where they’re supposed to go), but I still can’t do it without help.

   The reason I avoid reading instructions is that I can’t keep track ofthem – even with Ikea furniture. My brain tends to flit all over the page. Makes it difficult. Might be the same reason I struggle with comics and graphic novels.

4. 

   JimiTheGeek says:
   

   August 29, 2010 (2 weeks ago)

   I had to assemble a computer with all the accessories and stuff, and what I did, as I could feel the frustration rising, right, and I hadn’t even started, I was already getting hyper, was to stop and say okay, it’s gonna take one hour to do this, and I can calm down and read the instructions for like, ten minutes, skimming over them, then lay out the cables and stuff for five minutes and then start… And I was so calm. I also got it done in like a third the time I figured it would take. When I set aside that hour, (it was an evening and I was alone, so where was the pressure anyway, it wasn’t like customers were all standing around waiting) I was way better. I do that more now, just saying, sometimes even out loud, Okay, I’m gonna spend an hour on this. Or a half hour. Works for me.

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