What about the (flux) capacitor?!

Read time: 2 min 56 sec

Whatup Reader!

First off, shoutout to all of you who have actually heard of a flux capacitor. Double shoutout to those of you who know that flux capacitors (in reference to time travel) are not actually real, but Back to the Future is still an elite movie.

Moving on to today’s story, if you follow me on IG then perhaps you know I have a penchant for DIY-ing things. Not because I’m cheap, but because I genuinely enjoy learning things, working with my hands, and getting say, “I did that.”

My most recent DIY undertaking is the ceiling fan in the guest room. It’s been spinning slow AF pretty much since we moved in, and honestly, I can generate more of a breeze by simply exhaling.

Some quick internet research suggested that the capacitor is likely to blame, and swapping it out would be a $10, 10-minute project. Game on.

At the time of writing this, the new capacitor is still in transit (I only ordered it 15 minutes ago) but I was still able to work my Maestro magic and glean a lesson from this adventure, this time courtesy of some cranky folks on Reddit.

While searching for a solution for my slow ass fan I came across a Reddit thread posted by a 19 y/o who lived with his grandma and had taken to the forums to see if he could swap one ceiling fan capacitor for another one from a ceiling fan in a different room that never gets used.

Tell me why more than half of the responses were telling this NINETEEN-year-old kid to go and buy a whole new ceiling fan?! C’mon now. There were a handful of folks who provided actually helpful and encouraging feedback (including an electrician who highlighted the importance of making sure the new capacitor had the same specs as the one being replaced), but there were far more folks who were eager to share their largely irrelevant two pennies.

Shoutout to this person who understood the assignment:

As you can see from the pictures above this thread is over a year old. Unfortunately I didn’t feel like scrolling through the 150+ responses to see what homie wound up doing, so, apologies that I cannot close that loop for you.

I can however highlight the lesson that perhaps you’ve already deduced, which is that people will always be more than happy to tell you what they would do, convincing themselves that they’re being helpful, even if it’s completely irrelevant to what you asked.

A second thing worth mentioning that isn’t as directly applicable to the 19 y/o (he didn’t say he enjoyed fixing things, just that he had more elbow grease than expendable income) but is directly applicable to my situation, is that personal preference must always factor in when deciding if something is “worth it” or not.

What do you value? What do you care about?

If you want to ask for advice, by all means, do so.

Just be mindful of who you’re asking and how you interpret their response.

Have they done what you want to do? Do you value the same things? Did they actually provide helpful feedback or simply share their own limitations?

Not all advice is created equal.

I’ll be sure to include a ceiling fan update in next week’s email.

Happy Tuesday, Reader.

Maestro out.

PS – If I happen to be someone whose advice you value, round 16 of the Instagram Intensive is coming. Click here to check out the deets and add yourself to the waitlist so you can save the monies.

Do the thing.