Unpopular opinion: I actually like working on rust belt cars

At the shop on Wednesday, this guy from Florida was complaining nonstop about my 2003 Silverado being nothing but trouble. He kept saying everything up north is junk because of the salt. But that truck taught me more about patience and problem solving than any clean southern car ever could. I mean, sure, I spent 6 hours on one lower control arm bolt, but the satisfaction of breaking it free without snapping anything was worth it. Anybody else feel like rusty projects make you a better mechanic, or am I totally off base here?

3 comments

3 Comments

black.oliver18d ago

Rust builds character for real.

kimr9118d ago

Rust definitely teaches you to be more careful with your code, but it doesn't automatically make you a better programmer overall. A lot of those hard-won lessons can also come from writing tests in any language or doing peer code reviews. It's good for specific skills, not some magic character building tool.

the_lucas18d ago

Is borrowing checker yelling at you for the 47th time today really "building character" though? At some point it's just building frustration and a burning desire to use unsafe blocks... It's like saying getting waterboarded builds character too, technically you learn to hold your breath better. I guess the masochism of fighting the compiler until 2am counts as personal growth for some people.