Ask Lemmy

Spoon, I am currently unemployed and I love to eat so I carry a spoon wherever I go just in case I might eat something.

My penis.

My brian.

My brain :p

My table saw. It's the cheapest one I could buy new, but damn if I don't use it for every single project I do. Just got much nicer combo blade for it, so now it cuts buttery smooth.

Communication skills (aka bullshittery) I'm a finish carpenter and project manager so its my job to figure out what my boss thinks the client wants, what the client actually wants, what the fuck the architect is talking about, whatever the interior designer thinks they do, and translate it into usable language to get my carpenters to build it and make everyone think it was their idea that was the best.

My glasses, for sure. Next would be my bike, as I use it to get around everywhere. Third most important is probably my keyboard at work, or a pencil.

I'm a machinist, so I use a huge variety of tools (setting fixturing, looking at prints and diagrams, fine measurements and gauges, CAD and CAM software, manual machine tools, etc.) The most important? Eye protection. I have excellent vision and would never jeopordize it to whatever extent possible and reasonable. I use safety glasses so often now for scenarios even outside of work, I forget to take them off when eating until halfway through a meal. Maybe I should be worried about the broccoli, though. You can never be too careful.

My drawing assets. Drawing diagrams to explain things makes my life so much easier

Org mode!!!

collapsed inline media

I don't say this lightly, I think I would be dead if it wasn't for Org mode in emacs given how hostile most of the tools and systems in society are to my brain.

It seems like every other organizational/pkm tool is built by people with extremely high executive function, is extremely opinionated in a way that is impossibly unlikely to dovetail with my particular brain and how it specifically needs help and is made with ZERO thought to how cruel it is to design a wholistic organizational and thinking tool and sell it to people who are struggling in precarious positions via a business that will eventually enshittify or abruptly go out of business and leave those people stranded a million miles from shore with a notes/thinking system that is hopelessly locked into an abandoned system.

I use Org mode for work, I use it for life, it is essentially as necessary as a pen and paper for me to actually get shit done.

The browser. A surprising amount of my billable hours is googling the manual of some obscure thing someone else sold our customer and they want to feed the signal to our system and then reading aloud how they connect the thing.

I do sys admin/engineering work in a Windows environment. PowerShell is what got me this job, and together with my programming experience allows me to keep up with my seniors who have been in their positions for a decade or more.

It also helps us all make a good team. They have the knowledge and experience advantage (though I'm catching up), I have the skills to figure out how to implement/automate the plans in a way that doesn't involve days of mind numbing manual actions.

Caffeine.

A spudger, aka nylon probe tool aka “black stick”. I have them in drawers and toolboxes all over the place. Useful for working tiny plugs out of electronics and pressing, poking and scraping at things.

Regularly use for work? Scalpel blades. My job would be essentially impossible without them.

A scratch owl. At the leather shop I used that bastard for everything.

Math. It is the language of nature, music, science, and technology. Math is power.

Math allows me to create and use my own tools and media, besides those that someone has already dreamed up.

Precision vernier caliper

Excel.

My computer, my hand, and my ability to discern and call out bullshit.

Terminal on Linux for work. Bash is such a fun thing :)

Give me ssh, vi, bash and Linux kernel and I can get work done.

I probably use my driver and table saw most, but my cordless multitool is climbing up there.

I'd say my brain or my computer, but in reality it's my motivation to focus for a hot minute. So many distractions!

I would have to say EES (Engineering Equation Solver), as I’m a thermal engineer. Or potentially MATLAB with the CoolProp installed. They are quite brilliant tools, not to mention fun to work with!

First my glasses, next my smartphone and third I believe my desktop PC, wo all these three I will be homeless.

I feel naked without my Leatherman multi tool.

Battery powered 3/8 drive impact

It's really difficult to put two fine a point on this, because there are multiple tools that are basically vital to my job. I would say that most of my job can be done with a simple Phillips screwdriver, however the impact gets it done like 10 times faster and without fucking up my rotator cuff.

I have this really Kick-Ass flashlight which is helpful, I could probably go on for a while. I need to drill things so,.... Hmm