Knowing Where To Tap
You’ve likely heard some variant of the morality story where someone justifies their (commercial) worth as mostly a matter of knowledge, and not just labor.
A typical version is as follows - a handyperson is hired to fix a failing heater. They spend a few minutes investigating and listening to it from a variety of locations, and then tap a particular spot with a hammer and fix it.
They bill the owner of the heater $300 - the owner objects, saying that it was a simple tap of the hammer. So the worker remakes the invoice:
- Tapping a hammer: $1
- Knowing where to tap: $299
As with most concise-yet-resonant stories, it belies a more complex issue.