Have you ever had to learn something on the spot?

[BCRanger10]

Have you ever been in a situation when you had to learn to do something on the spot? With or without help?

At one of my earlier jobs in retail, I was the manager on duty. Our computer system crashed and we had to close down the store (oh yeah, it was on a Saturday too...). I had to call the corporate IT help desk and the guy had to walk me through how to fix it and get it back up and running so we could open the store again. He said he admired my confidence, as most other people he'd had to help before we're afraid of messing it up so badly that they'd lose their job.

Have you ever had to learn anything on the spot?

[InknKink]

In my 20s I worked as a cnc machine operator for 7 years where I was whats called a "floater". Most people probably know the term. a lot of companies have a couple "floaters".

Someone calls into work sick or would go on vacation. Their responsibilities don't go with them. Someone needs to do their job.

Big company. Lots of machines. Some old. Some new. Every machine having it's own personality with what it liked and didn't like. Everyday it was something new. Always performing a different function and all operations would have their own list of checks for ensuring a product met a specific set of parameters.

I bullshit my way through so many things performing that job. Sooo many things...

Luckily I wasn't expected to keep things running as smoothly as an operator who did it for 20,000 hours and knew it better than their own wife. So long as I didn't break anything the big wigs were fairly happy with me, at least most of the time.

Aside from that, I learn a great deal of many things on the fly when it comes to home repair and automotive. But in that regard, youtube is gospel. There is a video on just about everything... oil cooler leaking on an om642, youtubes got you covered. Blower motor failed on your furnace in the middle of winter, youtube can help you there.

I think our society would collapse inside of a week without youtube guides and tutorials. At the very least I'd go broke hiring professionals to do something I can do with the aid of a video.

[NathanDavis]

yeah, the first time I went to the beach...

I had to learn how to swim twice... first, how to get from the bottom up to the surface water level without drowning

and then... how to swim closer to land

same day, I also had to learn about the dangers of RIP currents... lol

[AngryCarl3]

Yes, one time when I was working in IT my boss told me a couple of staff were coming over for training, which I'd never done before.

[strateguy632]

All the time!

[exitseven]

Yes, I work in IT and it was a regular occurance.

[worldscolide]

In my line of work, all the time

[jahaims]

That's part of existing

[Agape93]

Pressure washing

[Agape93]

Now if aside a skill set like that, then probably situational reaction norms

[Tomislav7]

Thats cute