Homework
4/16 – Zen chap. 16-18
4/18 – Shop Class chap. 7
4/23 – Zen chap. 19-22
4/30 – Zen chap. 23-26
Recap of Last Class (4/4)
Wheel/Frame – worked on presentation, wet-sanded battery box to make it even and flat for priming and painting, everything got powder coated, primed for painting
Clutch – cleaned parts, found missing parts, put the clutch together (assembled all plates)
Electrical – assembled backup engine and frames to measure length for wires for the wiring harness
Top End – put together the valve spring mechanism but have to take it apart due to an error in assembly
Bottom End – cleaned parts, found missing parts (small washers, etc.), ready to assemble, make sure channel for oil is clear
Discussion of Zen Chapter 15
-Narrator is frustrated with rhetoric, said that rhetoric isn’t real because it didn’t have set rules, was arbitrary, rules added on post-hoc, and these rules can’t be followed/can’t imitate other writer’s style
-How John sees motorcycle maintenance is how narrator sees rhetoric
-Quality: narrator can’t define it, frustrated with what it is/what people think it is, capitalized because he wants to define it (like other abstract ideas, i.e. Truth)
-What makes one thing a piece of junk and another elegant?
-Form and function: structural integrity vs design, depends on if you’re talking to an architect or an engineer
-Quality for a motorcycle: how economic is it, how stable is it, cost of material
-There are functional qualities in writing: being succinct, omit needless words
-Largely depends on who is interpreting it and what its purpose is, if everyone has one definition of Quality, then only the motorcycle with the best quality would be sold, there would be no need for all the different types of bikes
-Some part of Quality is artistic, which is subjective, depends on the emotional response of the viewer
-Quality: standard of something measured against something similar (Oxford definition), can only exist in relation to something else, but be careful of definitions- can be defined with examples, not necessarily conclusive
-The discussion of Quality sets the stage for part III for the book
Thursday, April 11
Recap of Last Class (4/9)
Top End – the engine head is ready to go
Wheel – put bolts into front wheel and tightened it, pressed in bearings
Frame – primed
Electrical: got a wiring harness, scraped off the paint where the circuit needs to be grounded to the bike frame
**Make sure to get ground to engine casing, scrape off paint of the engine mounts, so electricity can flow
**Make sure the front and back frame are connected electrically
Clutch – helped other groups
Bottom End – put engine together, stopped at oil pump
Discussion of Shop Class Chapter 6
Intellectual Jobs
-Felt obligated to get an intellectual job after having gotten a masters degree
-But working at a think tank was actually intellectually damaging (which is worse than being a mechanic/electrician who gets physically injured)
-Focus on efficiency, churning out bad quality abstracts, only wants profits
-But quality can be compromised in the motorcycle shop as well
-Author not giving credit to the fact that other people might not think like him, maybe it’s just him trying to promote a particular point of view
-Other side of argument: rewarding intellectual work and drone-like mechanics
-Entry-level work: not very intellectual, mindless tasks, only when you get higher up do you get to do more intellectual things
-What he says is not necessarily wrong, he’s just generalizing his one experience
Managers
-Managers are important, keep the place running smoothly, and can also mess things up
-There are skills associated with being a good manager
-Author under-emphasizing satisfying the recipient of produced goods, which are people
-Inter-personal relationships are more important than they have ever been
College
-Most jobs require degrees now
-Autmissing the things that being in college teaches you, like organizational skills, how to manage your time…which prepares you for the real world, teaches DISCIPLINE, ability to do work, to be given an assignment and complete it
-Employers don’t look at grades, look at the fact that the person had gone through the process
-University provides a filter for the job world, credential part of it, even if it doesn’t necessarily go on to the knowledge side
Teamwork vs Crew
-Team: you don’t know who’s responsible for the blame, roles different, team dynamic is very different depending on how many people/who is on the team
-Crew: has worth independent of the others
-Working for a big or small company has different dynamics
Apprenticeship
-Corporate world: you don’t know who’s going to be promoted
-Apprenticeship: clear hierarchy of knowledge, is how you get ahead in the trade world