Men's Health The Big Book of Uncommon Knowledge · Clever Hacks for Navigating Life with Skill and Swagger!

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Do you know it all?

I didn’t think so. And that makes you pretty smart, according to Socrates,

who said:

“The only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing.”

When I first read that line, it made me feel a lot better about my

ignorance. The older I get, the more often I encounter experiences that

demonstrate how very little I really know.

Talking with my teenage daughters, for example.

But there are many, many other instances where I’ve felt that “I should

really know how to do this” only because I’m a man and men are suppose

to know this stuff. Stuff like calculating a pitcher’s earned run average (it’s

earned runs divided by innings pitched x 9), changing spark plugs, or

hanging drywall. Have you ever tried to hang drywall on a ceiling? It’s not

easy unless you’re privy to a critical carpenter’s trick. I wasn’t when our

upstairs shower leaked in the house and the water soaked the ceiling of the

downstairs half-bath. The drywall swelled, then burst, creating a real mess.

I called a plumber to fix the leak, but since it’s a smallish bathroom, I

figured I could replace the ceiling with new drywall myself. How hard

could it be? I removed the soggy bits, yanked out the old nails, cut new

Sheetrock to fit, and then called my Uncle Rog to give me a hand.

Rog pressed the Sheetrock against the floor joists as I drove in drywall

screws. That was a plan, at least. It didn’t work so well. The drywall was

larger and heavier than I had anticipated, and it sagged even though Uncle

Rog spread his hands wide and I used my free hand to hold up one end. As

the blood rushed from our outstretched arms, our hands became numb and

useless. And we laughed, which made everything much worse.

“We need more hands,” I laughed. “Or . . . a deadman,” Rog said. “We

should have made a deadman.”

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