Use the Correct Tool(s) for the Job

Yet another "aha moment" I got. My moments of insights are as usual, mostly super obvious. But I feel that even though there are many things (1) which we say we know, we don't usually do enough (not all, because we are only human) things in a way that shows we know them (1). In fact many times we do silly things that are appear contrary to the knowledge we purport the have. Okay, I admit, maybe I'm the only silly person here. Perhaps I shouldn't have used the word "we". Nonetheless, I like to re-iterate such maxims followed by a personal anecdote.

There probably exists correct tools for each job. If you use the wrong tool, you run the risk of damaging the things you're working on. For example, if you use a larger-sized wrench, you risk rounding the nut. It may also be less efficient, taking up more effort (time, strength), and even produce inferior results compared to using the correct tools.

So what happened was that my house was repainted last November iirc, and my chin-up bar was taken down. I saw my dad de-rusting the bar using autosol and I took over the job from him, as I felt that I had more experience in using autosol (from my NPCC days). Sure, I think did a decent job but it was too much effort (and painful fingers) just to de-rust a small area, so I set it aside.

One fine day I went to Daiso and saw this "sanding sponge" and I bought one for "de-rusting metal". So just now I used it and it was almost effortless. Using it, I took probably less than 2 minutes to de-rust the entire bar using just a little strength, as compared (using autosol) to taking 30 minutes to de-rust < 10% of the bar using much more strength. Haha, and hoorah for Daiso.



This sounds witty but I guess it's just plain nonsense:
“All of life’s problems can be solved with two things—duct tape and WD40. If it moves and it shouldn’t, you need duct tape. And if it doesn’t move and it should, you need WD40.”—Unknown