Well written, but I'd like to share a slightly different perspective. My
situation is different because I work for an independent shop. A few
manufacturers will pay us, but usually it's TCE and it's because the customer
requested that we do the work rather than the ASC down the street.We don't need
the work but we don't turn it down, we like the COD work, but then we sell our
own contracts, so there are those days........

You describe two thought processes in a different way than I. I prefer to see
it as geometry almost. There is forward thinking, what do I need to know next.
Don't think you're done, keep forward, i.e. if the fusible is open you
definitely need at aleast one more piece of info.

For example the fusible to the audio is open, of course you see if it's a
short. Your attention is there, hopefully at the end of the forward process. If
the IC is $15 or less I change it at the same time as the fusible. This I
consider lateral thinking. Knowing the IC went thermal, or was only an overload
at operating voltage is not too valuable as notable technical knowledge at this
price.

Now if you take the chain to the end and put the IC in, and it's the only thing
that fusible feeds, and it blows again, this is the time to pay the most
attention.

Now is the time for more lateral thinking. You don't back up to the fuse, but
just as technically the cost of the IC is tertiary, at this point something
tertiary to that chip is at fault. To find it you head in that direction. Of
course you have already checked that the supply isn't way high. Actually if
that were the case you would have to go "backwards" to the power supply. One
way to describe this would be omnidirectional thinking.

One other thing that is VERY important. These inductive and deductive terms are
one thing, but in reality you must be able to determine what does or not prove
your theory. You also must be able to tell what does or doesn't udis/uprove
your theory. Can you say for sure it IS this, or that it IS NOT this. These two
"directions" of logic are diametrically opposed, but both are necessary. (are
we saying almost the same things ?)

You should encourage your protoge to read all the replies. Different people
communicate differently, and "on any given Sunday" even someone younger might
get something more, or different from any given respondent.

I would highly suggest he also read my "RCA does it again" post. It's
importance comes from the fact that, as much as you do need to know what to do,
you need to know what not to do uFIRST/u.

The guy screwed up the 3 panel LCD assy, oh man. I wasn't even really asking
for help, I know we're beyond help on this one. Some comment would be nice but
I know we're screwed.In fact the light from screwed takes 10 minutes to reach
us. I'm sure your guy knows the simple, don't change the fuse first, the usual,
but in the future there will be alot of screwed up "don't dos" so he needs to
get ready for them as well as the rest of us.

JURB