New "Meme": Manly or Self-Sufficient?

As mentioned in the previous post, Cut to the Chase offers two lists of skills to look at: The Popular Mechanics list of "25 Skills Every Man Should Know" and a new list of "20 Practical Skills Every Self-Sufficient Adult Should Have."

This seems ripe for an Internet "meme" thing, so here's a the proposed game:

Go through both lists, and determine how many of the listed skills you can claim. Compare the fractions to see if you're more of a ManlyMan or a Self-Sufficient Adult.

A quick pass at the lists gives me 14/25 from the Popular Mechanics list, and 17/20 from Chase's list. That makes me 56% Manly, and 85% Self-Sufficient. The full lists, with the usual bold-if-you-claim-it highlighting are below the fold:

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The Popular Mechanics list:

1. Patch a radiator hose
2. Protect your computer
3. Rescue a boater who has capsized
4. Frame a wall
5. Retouch digital photos
6. Back up a trailer
7. Build a campfire
8. Fix a dead outlet
9. Navigate with a map and compass
10. Use a torque wrench
11. Sharpen a knife
12. Perform CPR
13. Fillet a fish
14. Maneuver a car out of a skid
15. Get a car unstuck
16. Back up data
17. Paint a room
18. Mix concrete
19. Clean a bolt-action rifle
20. Change oil and filter
21. Hook up an HDTV
22. Bleed brakes
23. Paddle a canoe
24. Fix a bike flat
25. Extend your wireless network

(I'm taking a fairly generous interpretation of "knowing" these skills, to mean something like "I have successfully done this thing at least once in my life." I figure this balances out-- I probably could hook up an HDTV, though I haven't, but then I shouldn't be anybody's first choice to back up a trailer, even though I have done it.)

Chase's list:

1. Know basic nutritional needs & how to plan balanced meals
2. Hone your sense of direction & navigation so you don’t need step-by-step turns to find a location
3. Understand types of health insurance & terminology such as OOP max & co-insurance percentage
4. Maintenance of a personal computer
5. In-depth knowledge of your employment benefits
6. Change a flat tire
7. Wash & iron clothes
8. Balance a checkbook & manage your finances
9. Patch holes in walls
10. Fix a clogged toilet
11. Jump start a car
12. Use public transportation to get around
13. Write an effective resume cover letter
14. Professional oral & written communication
15. Basic math
16. Stay calm in emergencies
17. Know when to ask for help
18. Personal hygiene
19. Do your own taxes
20. Use internet search engines strategically (if you know how to do good searches, you can find any information you need on the web)

(Same interpretation here-- I no longer do my own taxes, but I can and have in the past. I'm giving myself the benefit of the doubt on #7, as I've never ironed anything, but then I figure I get half a point for that, and half a point for #17-- I know when to ask for help, but I don't always do it... Also, I can not only plan a meal, I can cook it, which ought to be worth a bonus point.)

So, how about it? Are you Manly or Self-Sufficient?

(Original link via Republic of T.)

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I think the only thing I haven't done on the 'Manly' list is fillet a fish. I have to wonder, why a bolt action rifle? I've fired, disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled firearms of all types save for fully automatic, and that's only because I don't have access to them.

The second list, I'm right there with you, except I've had to fight with my previous insurance company over so much shit that I can bold that one.

Fish filleting, no problem. Never touched a gun, though. Hmm. I make myself 23/25 on Manliness (which is wildly inaccurate as to my actual life!) and probably 19/20 on self-sufficiency, with the exception being that I have not yet managed to land that tenure-track job, and hence..

..I do think that _both_ those scores are bizarrely flattering, though. And my wife would agree, at least on the self-sufficient... ;-)

Interesting that "cook a decent meal" and "sew a button or patch" are completely missing from both lists...

I'm definitely not manly - there's only 9 on that list I'm certain I could do. (Or maybe 10, #9 is ambiguous.) On the self-sufficient list, again I'm not sure I'm elite enough to qualify for #2 - especially if we're talking about New Jersey. I'm also missing the resume cover letter.

And "(if you know how to do good searches, you can find any information you need on the web)" is ludicrously untrue, and a dangerous lie at that. Unless it's a very broad definition of "the web" and a very limited definition of "information you need."

By Chris Koeberle (not verified) on 22 Oct 2007 #permalink

Wow, the first list is a bit, uh, ridiculously sexist.

17/25, 18/20
According to Heinlein: "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
I haven't tried most of that, so I suppose I fail, with a score of 11/21.

I'm 48% manly? And 85% self-sufficient. Maybe that explains why I have so much trouble getting a date - guys don't think I need them? If so, I'm out of luck; I'm really bad at playing the helpless female.

By marciepooh (not verified) on 22 Oct 2007 #permalink

44% "manly" and 80% self-sufficient. Although I take issue with the gendering of quite a few of the items on the Popular Mechanics list, even in the sense of "conforming to gender stereotypes in modern American society." Seriously, "touching up digital photos"? That is so totally a chick thing.

(For both lists, I rated myself as unable if my approach was "contact a knowledgeable person and have them do it," because while *I* think "Call AAA" is a perfectly acceptable means of fixing a flat tire, I don't think that's what the list-makers had in mind. (I could probably change a tire on my own if my life depended on it--I know the theory even if I haven't done it in practice--but I'd really rather not put that to the test.)

80 % Manly and 90 % Self-Sufficient. (Generously counted of course, as a Self-Sufficient Man should.)

Jump start a car? I figured out how to break into my own, crack the steering lock and hot wire it with a fork (don't ask; oh, well it was an old car so I can tell - it was possible to press past the rubber around the side window and pull the manual lock from the outside) and a knife, after loosing my keys backpacking in the mountains. Do I get bonus points?

If I had known that rescuing a capsized boater would count I would have pushed one in a long time ago. :-P Seriously, why do they figure happenstance into this?

By Torbjörn Lars… (not verified) on 22 Oct 2007 #permalink

@ #5

The first list isn't ridiculously sexist, it's just ridiculous... bleed brakes, my ass.

52% manly and 95% self-sufficient (despite several observations, I can still never remember how to jump-start a car, the whole "red/black" thing and the possibility of major electrical ramifications always freeze me up).

About 60% of the first and all of the second exept 3 and 5 .
The lists seem very american -Use public transportation to get around- is something any 10-year-old can do around here.
And bolt-action rifle - not exactly - does a 155mm howitzer count?

Same as Torbjörn. I also thought the "capsized boat" item was, well, bizarre. Are the number of people who are around boats that have a greater than vanishingly small probability of capsizing really that significant?

I can do everything of the 25 except the whole "rescue someone from a capsized boat," which is just strange. I mean, I probably could ... but I figure "swimming after your boat capsizes" should be on the list, and if they can't handle that, maybe they aren't worth rescuing. I guess.

By Kurt Montandon (not verified) on 22 Oct 2007 #permalink

Are you Manly or Self-Sufficient...?

I am almost legendarily non-handy. My wife scores at least a couple points higher on the first scale, and that's based just on the items I know I've seen her do. (There will be yet another point for her once we finish our basement, since she'll be doing some wall framing...)

OTOH we both score 90% or over on the Self-Sufficient scale.

By ColoRambler (not verified) on 22 Oct 2007 #permalink

I can do 100% of the things on the "self-sufficient" list and 76% on the "manly" list, but I would often rather smile girlishly and ask someone else to do them for me. Lazy-ass chick, you bet. :)

By speedwell (not verified) on 22 Oct 2007 #permalink

The boat thing: People who are around boats in any significant capacity know how to rescue someone because every boat safety course ever covers this to varying extents.

That being said, I am a pretty manly man given that I such a girly girl, 19/25, but 19/20 self sufficient, health insurance eludes me.

@ # 5
> Wow, the first list is a bit, uh, ridiculously sexist.

Self-evident statement award. Could a 'manliness' list be anything else? (loose interpretation of 'sexist' here)

It's not to say some of the same items couldn't be on a 'girliness' list, is it? But perhaps that would be sexist too?

Nevermind, men and women are exactly the same, obviously.

Wow, the first list is a bit, uh, ridiculously sexist.

It's Popular Mechanics, and a list of specifically male skills. If anything, I share Pam's amazement that "retouch digital photos" made it on there. It probably narrowly edged out "butcher a hog."

Kate noted, off-line, that the list of "Skills Every Man Should Know" really ought to include "how to use a condom."

Not that that's limited to men, of course, but yeah.

As for the general concept of the _Popular Mechanics_ list, here, see my eyes rolling: @@

As Jesus' General says, "An 11 on the Manly Scale of Absolute Gender".

Know how to ride a bus counts as a life skill???
Not "Know how to drive a bus", or "Know how to clean the injectors on a diesel engine"?

"Know how to use public transportation to get around" strikes me as not significantly beyond "Know how to cross the street by yourself". Does enumerating this skill imply that there are large numbers of people who don't know how to ride a bus?

Maybe this is a generational thing - (...heck, maybe it's a class thing...) - but I was tuning engines before I was old enough for my learner's permit. So I'm with #9 and #13: "Jump start a car"??? Add me to the list of people here who have sawn through the steering lock in order to hotwire a car.

Well, there are a couple things on the lists that I know how to do only in theory (e.g., I've never given real, live CPR; and, while I've never cleaned a gun, I've torn down and rebuilt a carb, so I'm reasonably certain that the skillset would carry over). So by the standards of these exams, heck, I must be at 200% or so.

By Bob Oldendorf (not verified) on 22 Oct 2007 #permalink

They must have their offices in Los Angeles. I've lived around here most of my driving age life and quite a few of us (me included) are incapable of using a bus schedule. I can handle the London Undgerground, but buses elude me, and it's something I've never seen a guide for. Something that explains what a 'transfer' is and where I get one.

Iron? Who NEEDs to iron? I learned how as a kid, and have done it in "emergencies" such as a dress shirt or wedding gown having something spilled on it and need a pressing before facing cameras-- but no ordinary item of clothing needs more than proper drying to be wearable. I gave away my own iron in the 1970s, and have never felt the lack.
I can do most all of that other stuff, though. Leaned most of the "manly" while in Girl scouts or as a theatre techie.

23/25 Manly Man. 18/20 (I'm not USian, so I know SFA about health insurance issues) on Self Sufficient.

And I'm a girl.

Hohn: The whole red/black thing doesn't matter so much, as long as you MATCH the colors. It's not like the copper knows what color the insulation is.

Both lists can be summed up as exercises in common sense and basic logic that a teenager should possess.

By mxracer652 (not verified) on 23 Oct 2007 #permalink

Hey Jamie! Great to see you around. Thanks for the tip, but the part that always stumps me when it comes to "go time" is what color to attach first to what car, and whether one of the clamps should be on the frame, and all of these other things that send me scurrying for cover while I call AAA. ;-)

52% manly and 95% self sufficient. Search engines are my downfall: more than once I've had to abandon Google searches for a person because said person happened to have the same name and other life details as a much more famous person.

I also agree that several items on the "manly" list are a matter of circumstance. I got boating-related merit badges as a Boy Scout, so I know how to rescue someone who's capsized, even though I haven't been boating in years. But I flunk "Hook up an HDTV" because, since I don't own and have no plans to acquire a TV, that skill has never had any value for me. And of course there are several others on the "manly" list that I have never had occasion to try, but I could probably muddle through if I had to: mixing concrete and fixing a dead outlet, to name two.

By Eric Lund (not verified) on 23 Oct 2007 #permalink

Apparently, I'm 96% manly and 85% self-sufficient. Fortunately, my wife is quite knowledgeable regarding nutrition, insurance forms, employment benefits and CPR, (as well as most of the other things on both lists.) I occasionally clean an antique bolt action rifle that belonged to my father, though the piece hasn't been fired in decades; otherwise I would only be 92% manly.

By ancientTechie (not verified) on 23 Oct 2007 #permalink

Both. 85%/100%.

God, I AM a geek.

Patch a radiator hose? You never patch a radiator hose. If it has started to leak, the whole hose is almost certainly trash. You *replace* a radiator hose, and while you're at it, you replace the other radiator hoses, because they're just as old, and probably just as trashed. Checking the belts at the same time is a good idea.

By Erik V. Olson (not verified) on 24 Oct 2007 #permalink