Idiot on a Construction Site

In my old job, I made a mistake that. could have very easily cost me my life. I'm Amanda from Silsby, Texas. Let's. talk about that. [Applause]. Good mythical morning. Today's episode. is brought to you by Smule, maker of the. Magic Piano app. We want to thank all of. you who participated in the doped zebra. magic piano cover contest. Amazing. entries and we have a winner, ladies and. gentlemen. Congratulations to the man,

the myth, the legend, Mike Mike Burns. Patty trying to wear some shoes for my. boy who made this video. So don't so. confused. He wants a big pocket, but he. don't want to steal. He's afraid to look. too desperate. Just keeping it real. Congratulations for getting Chuck Ta. make a cameo in your video and rapping. and for winning a pair of mythical. shoes. Ladies and gentlemen, tomorrow on. Good Mythical Morning it is bring a. friend to GM. That means invite. somebody. Those are my favorite days. when they watch it tomorrow with you or.

separate from you, then you can get. together and you can talk about it. I. read some comments about people bringing. friends. Bring a friend. And their. friends became more addicted to Good. Mythical Morning. That's what we need. We need people addicted to this. This is. a good This is a good drug. We want you. to out addict each other. Are we licensed to give this kind of. advice? No. We take it all back. Okay. Yesterday, yesterday we heard Link. talk about his experience as an. engineer. Well, little known fact or. actually it's pretty well known. We've.

talked about it many times. I was also. an engineer. We talked about that. yesterday, too. Civil engineer. Yes. And. uh I also got a job with a different. firm. I didn't get a job with. International Business Machines. No, I. got a job at a place called Black and V. Apparently, these are two people who. started a company at some point. And one. of the guy's names was Vich. Yeah. Yeah. Mr. Vich. It's pretty cool. Mr. Black, which sounds like a spy. And Mr. V, which sounds like maybe a principal or a. civil engineer. Mr. V, please come to.

the the boardroom or the cafeteria. Anyway, that's not really what this is. about. It's about the fact that I was a. civil engineer and we designed power. plants. That's what our firm did. And. I'm not talking about nuclear power. plants. I'm talking about other types of. things like hydrogen or hydrogen, natural gas, coal, that kind of thing. Okay? And uh I designed the underground. systems for these. You know, there's a. place there there's this huge power. plant maybe on 50 acres or whatever. And.

then there is water that needs to go. from point A to point B. There's. nitrogen that needs to get over there. There's all these different things. There's waste water and there's pipes, big, small, small, big. Okay. And I have got to. determine how to get water going through. these pipes. All kinds of things. I. didn't really worry with what was going. through them. Really? You didn't have to. know what was going through the pipe? No, I had to know. But really what they. were like, you need to get nitrogen or. whatever it was. That's I didn't even. know. You need to get this material from.

here to here. And we wanted it to be as. inexpensive as possible. So, a little. bit a little bit of crossover. Sounds. like a plumber to me. Plumbers don't do. that. They they lay pipe. And so, I had to get from point A to. point B. And I had to do it in the most. efficient and expensive way possible. And I'm not but I'm not I'm not out on. the construction site. I'm in a little. cubicle in Kerry, North Carolina. You're. drawing this. I literally I mean this. was this is only you know several years. ago but even at the time it was being.

done on a computer but I was doing it by. hand and then giving it to a guy who. would make it on a computer. So you. didn't use AutoCAD? No, I I didn't. You. use a pencil and paper? A red pencil. It. was like when Red draws with a red. pencil you better listen. You know, it's. like I had this big map like the. actually the the pictures or the maps or. whatever. I'm like I'm totally. embarrassing myself to any former. engineers or any current engineers. The. picture I don't know what was going. through the pipes, but they gave me a. picture in a red pen and I just started.

drawing. You know, the subtext, look, it's a tree. The subtext of this story. is that I was unqualified. Okay, I got I got a good degree from NC State. University. I made good grades, but then. I kind of showed up and I was like, "Hey, man. How fast is your internet, you know, and I don't want to be doing. this for very long. Yeah, but how fast I. didn't do anything wrong. It's just I I. wasn't that efficient and I didn't care. that much, but you know, I think I did a. good job in getting things from point A. to point B and draw and I wasn't drawing.

like trees. I was drawing them where the. pipes went and I was putting little. elevations on them and what kind of. fixture they needed on this pipe, that. kind of thing. As you can imagine, it. sounds riveting. this was the most. boring thing that you can do with your. life. Well, okay. No, I don't I don't. mean to demean other engineers out. there, but this was like a This is entry. level for someone whose brain Let's. Let's Let's be fair. For someone whose. brain. and desires and ambitions in life all. lined up in a certain way, for you to be.

doing that particular type of profession. was frustrating for you. It was not a. good fit for me because that did not. engage my brain in the way that I wanted. my brain to be engaged. Mhm. So I only. did it for a couple years. But there was one moment of great reward. and that was the time they said rest. every day when you got to go to the. bathroom. That was that was very. rewarding. And then lunch and then. breaks and then home. I remember looking forward to lunch when. I was an engineer. I would go to lunch.

at 11:00 a.m. every day because I just. couldn't wait. Well, you also come in at. like 6:00 a.m. Oh. Um, that wasn't it. Your most rewarding experience. They. said, "We're going to send you on a. trip. We're going to fly you to Alabama, a field trip, and you're going to get to. see you're going to get to go to the. construction site and you're going to. get to see the construction in progress. You're going to get to see what you. design becoming a reality." I was like, "Now this is cool. Sign me up." I got on. the plane. I went down there by myself. The fruits of your labor. Yeah. And I'm,

you know, I'm just like a year out of. college. I'm like 22 years old. Probably. the first time I ever flew by myself. You know, I'm on the plane by myself. I. get the rental car and they're like, "You're not even really old enough to. rent a rental car. I don't even know how. I did it. I didn't steal it." And I'm. driving through the middle of nowhere, Alabama, and I come up on the. construction site, you know, and I pull. in and I go, there's like these little. construction trailers. And but as I'm. walking to the trailer, I look Now, how. how big this is a power plant? 50 acres. This is a big deal. I mean, I'm I'm just.

like looking out over. this huge just field and there's all. these people doing things. There's. cranes. There's guys digging. There's. guys setting things. They're putting all. the stuff underground. The stuff that I. designed with my little red pencil. They. had blueprints with your red pencil on. it. No, it had been made into like a. computer print out at that point. Okay. But it's almost like the the man with. the red pencil is here. Wow. He looks. young. Did you you know did you have the. red pencil in your ear? Yeah, I kept No,

I didn't. That would have been good. It. would have been good to kind of It's. It's like anything that I did on that. red pencil became reality and I was. seeing that in person. Mhm. This was an. exciting thing for a 22-year-old person. to experience to see all these like. 45year-old construction workers. Hey. man, there's the guy who did this. This. is the They don't really They don't. treat you like that though. They don't. care about you at all. They're like, "Yeah, there's the engineer. He doesn't. know anything about anything, but he. heard a lot of murmuring like a red pen.

It's got a red pencil. Pencil. Yeah. I. saw one and it it had a drawing of a red. tree on it. I was a little He's really. good at drawing a tree. I was. intimidated to show up as this young guy. and I was like, "What do they think. about me? I don't seem qualified." I did. have on khakis though and I did have my. shirt tucked in just like you did. A. golf shirt. Golf shirt. Khakis. Good. Oh, and boots. I I wore work boots cuz. I'm going to construction site. Steel. toe? Yeah, you had to have steel toe. boots and I had those on. I had on my. Timberlands. Not really. Timberlands.

don't have steel toes. I don't know. They weren't timberlands. They were just. like Walmart boot issue. So, was it a mechanical pencil or Let's. let me get to the details cuz I made a. fool of myself. I go to the trailer and. I meet the head engineer and I'm like. he's like, "Well, you want to take a. tour of the site?" And I was like, "Well, sure. He said, "Would you just uh. just go on out there and and walk around. and introduce yourself?" So, that was. his tour. Just go out there and. introduce.

Would you like to take a tour? Well, go. out there and walk around. He meant like. a self-guided tour. I didn't know at the. at the time, but that's what he meant. You were looking for the tram. So I go. out there in my, you know, it was I I. picture myself in a pink shirt because. that's how inadequate I felt amongst I. just picture myself in a pink shirt and. like capri pants, you know, walking. amongst construction workers because I'm. this 22-year-old guy, this, you know, I've got more of an education than these. guys, but who are actually building the. stuff, but they know a whole lot more. about it than I do. And there's probably.

a little resentment. I'm getting more. money than they are already. Yeah. And. you know, and it's just like and so I'm. walking out there and I'm try and I'm. really really insecure and real. self-conscious and I'm walking around. and then I kind of I'm like walking by. I'm like kind of waving. They're kind of. like looking at me and they're all kind. of looking at me like waving at them. What is this guy thinking? Never wave at. a construction worker like this. No, I. was I was doing sort of the nod. I was. like, are you the nod and the point? You. know, I was trying to fit in frat guy.

But again, I've got my pink shirt and my. capri pants on figuratively. Then I see the foreman and he's kind of. like in the middle and he's like working. on something. He's like sitting on the. edge of a pit and there's all these. dudes down in there with this big pipe. and he looks at me and he's like. points at his head like that and I'm. like. I'm thinking he's me. He's like, "Oh, here's the guy with the brains. The guy. with the brains has showed up. The guy. with the red pencils here." Yeah. Yeah. And so then he looks again, he's like.

he's like, "Would you like parmesan with that?" I. don't know. A jacket H&M. And so and. then I noticed he is saying something. and then he's like I'm I kind of then. I've stopped and now I'm officially. interacting with him. Yeah. And he's. like 50 yards away. He's like, "Hard. hat. Get a hard hat.". And then I look around and realize that. not only am I the man in the figurative.

pink shirt and capri pants, I'm the only. person on the scene without a hard hat. So you understood what he said. It. wasn't like, "Yeah, I'm all that." Yeah. No. Got the brains. I got it. And then. of course because he had to yell it. several times, every person on there is. like, "Look at a new engineer. Hard hat. Hard hat. He ain't got no hat." They. didn't actually start. They didn't start. a chant. Now, that would have been. really embarrassing. So, I sheepish. sheepishly walk back to the trailer and.

I go in there and I say to the head. engineer, I'm like, "Uh, can I get a. hard hat?" And so, then he's like, "You. didn't bring your own hard hat." There's. not there's nothing stupider than not. having a hard hat other than then. putting on a hard hat and walking back. out there. And the only thing different. now is that you have the hard hat on and. now you kind of feel like a complete. So anyway, the moral of the. story, I guess, is wear a hard hat on. construction sites. And something tells. me that you don't look that awesome. wearing a hard hat anyway. I don't look.

good in a hat. Let's spin the wheel. You. know, new job, you're going to make. mistakes. That's the way it goes. If. you're in your new job, your first year. of your new job, and you make a mistake, don't sweat it. Don't forget the hard hat either. How we. going to end this show, Rat? Well, we. are going to. Link tells Rhett a bedtime story. Okay, this is a new addition to the wheel. Did. I look like a Okay, Rhett, lay your.

little head down. It's time for a. bedtime story. Once upon a time, there. was a little boy named Rat. Rhett. And. he wanted to be an engineer when he grew. up. That's me. So he went out in his. backyard with a red pencil and he drew. on everything that he could find. And. then I met a dragon. And then a dragon. showed up. and said and I got to ride on him. No, he said I'm going to eat you because.

you're not wearing your hard hat and. then he ate the little boy named Rhett. and then he digested him and he pooped. him out and he was asleep. I'm going to. have nightmares. Thanks for joining us. today. Have sweet dreams, everybody. [Music].