I have been in awe of such people throughout my life.
I’m certainly not one of them.
Such people truly thrive when put in an environment where they are encouraged to try using their own solutions and not quickly dismissed for ‘sounding crazy’.
I don’t know how frequently this occurs now, vs 30 years ago. Has the age of computers overshadowed the innate talents of people who can Fix It for us?
Yes. McIver types have my respect. I can fix some things, but I know people who can analyze and fix a lot more. Many are aided by YouTube videos. It’s great to have that as a helper. Technology used for good.
When my son was in high school, he and his buddy bought a 1981 VW Rabbit, took it completely apart and put it back together. They converted it from fuel-injection to a carburetor and got it to run.
For years I worked as part of a “Lean Thinking” team where we would just “try stuff” and see if it worked.
If it failed we would quickly abandon it and try the next idea on the list.
That was an amazing process—we solved a bunch of “impossible” problems that way.
After a few years we became masters of “thinking about thinking” and the first proposal started working most of the time.
My dad
a self taught engineer
loved a problem
I doubt it. They are born with that ability. So, computers have no impact on those abilities.