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My brother-in-law, a union pipefitter, said our trade is getting too soft on the math
We were having a beer after a long week on a big steam plant job in Toledo. He said, 'You guys used to do all your own trig for rolling offsets right on the job. Now you just punch numbers into an app on your phone.' It hit different because he wasn't wrong. I learned on a job site ten years ago with a framing square and a chart book, and I still do it that way. But last month, the new apprentice didn't even know how to find a travel without his phone. It made me think, are we losing a core skill by relying on tech, or is it just smart to use the best tool for the job? Where do you all stand on using apps versus doing the math by hand for layout?
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rubyw705mo ago
That bit about the apprentice not knowing travel without his phone is real. My buddy had a kid on site who couldn't do a simple 45 without the app, had to shut the whole lift down to figure it out. Makes you wonder what happens when the phone dies.
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coleman.christopher5mo ago
@rubyw70 My phone died once and I had to ask a gas station clerk for directions like some kind of pioneer.
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lee.cole3mo ago
Hear me out, I think the apps are just a tool like anything else. A framing square and chart book are just older tools, same as an app. The real skill is understanding why the math works, not just being able to punch it out on paper. If that apprentice understood the triangle and the ratio, he could figure out the travel even if his phone died. Blaming the app feels like a distraction from making sure the fundamentals are taught right from the start.
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