TL;DR:  Attitudes over aptitudes

YouTube is my go-to for DIY, but more than that, it is my inspiration for having a proper learning attitude. Here is a great example of that from  Salvage Workshop
In this episode, the mechanic continues on a long-standing renovation of a derelict dozer, “Old Red”. He is learning from another mechanic how to use an oxy-acetylene torch to heat up frozen bolts and nuts to get them off.

In text annotations throughout this clip, he returns to the idea over and over about how he wasn’t born knowing how to use tools. He had to learn. He shows how having the attitude that others can help you and teach you is profoundly helpful. And it is. I will never renovate a dozer and I don’t own a torch, but I can and do learn how to address problems with the tools at hand. I learned that from the many YouTube channels I subscribe to.

I am always telling my students how the most important skill I can help them with is creating a mutual aid network. I tell them, ” Don’t ever go more than twenty minutes of failed understanding before you ask for help.”

That’s just a rule of thumb, but YouTube can be considered what Robert Twigger calls an “entry trick”. An entry trick is, according to Twigger, “…a way , in one stroke, to elevate your performance at that task and get an immediate payoff…Learning must not be like school; it must not be boring.”  More importantly, it must allow you to get better and it must reward you with progress.  In this case, we are learning how to learn.  The entry trick is to ask your network for help until you get it. Attitude rules when it comes to aptitude.  Or perhaps attitude is an aptitude.