Manual Labor Redux

This weeks question from Booking Through Thursday is:

Scenario: You’ve just bought some complicated gadget home . . . do you read the accompanying documentation? Or not?
Do you ever read manuals?
How-to books?
Self-help guides?

Anything at all?

Well always mean to but why do so many read like that they have been published using the Internet translation service? Flatpack instructions always appear the worse. Now I am already on the wrong foot as I have to assemble a screwdriver, hammer etc so at a complete loss what type are needed. Then having to identify the right type of screw, nail, piece of wood in the right order from the exploding picture instructions...suffice to say that my set of matching oak stained deep set bookshelves don't!

And what about mobile phone manuals...I have a new phone that woke us up at 5.40 this mornings screaming taxi and then whistling. Please tell me where in the manual I can find what to press to get rid of it. Don't say switch as it still repeats(the wife is screaming at me as I type re what to do with the phone-don't ask... she is not a morning person).When installing gadgets on the computer I remember the correct order(software install first and then plug in) and just get on with it. A lot come with instructions in pictures but I can never figure the angle you are supposed to start from(oh dear the other mobile phone is now sounding off but its at least 7pm AND I know to switch this one off).

What would be interesting is when did these DIY instructions first get published? Did the Victorians have a manual when getting the first phones? Or when mail order was invented did your settler in the outback or the mid west have a flatpack? The westerns I saw never explained how the rich cattle barons house was made into top of the range New York class. So what's your money on for why the change...making it cheap for the masses or workers getting deskilled so the bosses can make more money?

Can't say I read many how to guides as they seem to be akin to blame the sinner and not the sin.. yes you can manage your excessive work load or make more friends if only you tried that little bit more. No mention(in the UK) that we have an excessive working hours culture and a commuting burden that strips many of us of the time and energy to do anything creative. (Yes I read...and do some writing but only because I sleep 5-6 hours a day and don't socialise, do the garden, tinker with cars, mend the house so live in a hovel, drive a wreck and make a hermit look like the party dude.) What I do love reading is the self help guides from the past such as Victorian guides to good manners or 1950's guides to a good marriage. They are often hilarious and point to the fate of many of our guides today.

Anyway work calls and I have to sort out reinstalling my laptop that crashed so I may be gone for some days