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Troubleshooting: A skill that never goes obsolete

Much of what I do, in multiple fields, could be reduced to one skill: troubleshooting. I’ll define troubleshooting as systematically determining the cause of unwanted behaviour in a system, and fixing it. Troubleshooting is often learned tacitly, in the process of explicitly learning “the skill”. Troubleshooting is rarely discussed

The impeller was destroyed (probably unavoidable, because the correct tools weren’t on hand) The cast piece around the shaft that held a pin in a slot broke in two when hammering the pump apart, or was already broken (not important, because it would still fulfil its function). (I have often repeated, verbatim, an entire troubleshooting process, found the problem — and then remembered I troubleshot the exact system, and arrived at the same conclusion, years ago; but there was some hiccup, and I failed to order or install the new part.) Special thanks to my older brothers, for granting access to the famous licorice tin of scavenged electronic components; building Van de Graaff generators, morse code telegraphs, pneumatic spitball shooters, seaweed cannons, autonomous robots, rockets, and spot welders with me; and making it possible for me to write (rather optimistically) in my journal at age ten: “Today I lerned PHP!!

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