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Competence Porn

[Yesterday: 3.4 miles]

I learned a new term today: competence porn. It seems to apply in the world of TV shows where really smart people figure out really hard problems… as if you worked at the Skunk Works and everyone did their job well and amazing things were accomplished.

I can dig it. I don’t actually watch much of that kind of TV show. I’ve see some of it, like Criminal Minds and House.

But I immediately thought of some of the Youtube channels I have been following recently.

The first is a guy whose Youtube name is Mustie1. His specialty is internal combustion motors of all kinds, from lawn mowers to motorcycles to VW engines. He’s not a car mechanic with diagnostic gizmos, he’s a generalist. And he is good at making the videos interesting.

The second is a similar guy in a marine environment called Dangar Marine. He also works on engines, but he’s even more general than that, doing all sorts of boat repairs. Now he is working on restoring a small steel trawler.

These guys over at Acorn to Arabella are building a wooden sailboat from scratch.. like, starting with trees.

And one of the first ones I watched was Primitive Technology, a guy who uses mud and water and sticks to make all sorts of stuff.

All of these people are doing things that I can connect with, but are just out of my reach in one way or another. I’d much rather watch them then watch some fantasy show on TV where even the “poor” people have straight shiny teeth, the period cars aren’t dirty, and the hero wins in the end because the writer wrote it that way.

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