Posting the tale of the apprentice's toolbox about ten days ago
produced a lot of interesting mail but a couple of key concepts
managed to escape comment. Perhaps these concepts are things everyone
already understands, although I've a hunch they aren't. So mebbe I'd
better beat the drum.

Each of us already HAS a kind of 'apprentice's toolbox.' It's that
lump of gray matter between our ears. We spend our entire life
filling it up and in the final analysis, it's contents are the only
things we truly own. Everything else in our lives is transient,
subject to being taken from us by a whim of fate, the stoke of some
politician's pen or by the passage of time itself. But knowledge --
the things we KNOW are ours forever. If your toolbox is filled with
useful things, even the worst disaster is little more than a minor
inconvenience. And I'm not just talking about how to find water,
protect yourself and make fire by rubbing two grizzly bears together.
I'm talking about the whiff of common sense that tells us it's
impossible for someone earning $30k a year to afford a house costing
$900k. Not only does your toolbox tell you that's impossible, in 1995
it told you that American real estate had become another South Sea
Bubble... and allowed you to protect yourself from its eventual
collapse.

Very handy thing, that toolbox between our ears. The question that
begs asking is: What are you putting into yours?

The second concept notable by its absence was the fact you don't have
to actually build an airplane to acquire the skills to do so. Nor do
you need a shop full of tools. It's possible for ANYONE having an
interest in aviation to build a few ribs, to learn to weld, to build
the complete tail surfaces of an airplane or to convert an engine for
flight.

-R.S.Hoover