DIYbanter - View Single Post - What is with the postings for help lately from complete idiots?

wrote:
....
Y'know a buddy o mine had a contracting company a few years back and he
told me about when people asked why something was so expensive he
replied with, how much do YOU make ? People will sit there and collect
$80,000 a year for doing pretty much nothing and begrudge you your
$30/hour or whatever. And they NEED YOU to do it BECAUSE THEY CAN'T.

Classic example from Charles Steinmetz[1] some 103 years ago:

"Steinmetz retired as an engineer from General Electric to teach
electrical engineering at that city's Union College in 1902. General
Electric later called back as a consultant. He had worked on a very
complex system that was broken. No one could fix it no matter how hard
the technicians tried. So they got Steinmetz back. He traced the systems
and found the malfunctioning part and marked it with a piece of chalk

Charles Steinmetz submitted a bill for $10,000 dollars. The General
Electric managers were taken back and asked for an itemized invoice.

He sent back the following invoice:

1. Making the chalk mark $1
2. Knowing where to place the chalk mark $9,999"

[1] Steinmetz references
http://www.rotaryhistoryfellowship.org/philosophy/scientists/steinmets.htm
and many others through Google.