Ulterior Motives

How goals, both seen and unseen, drive behavior

Art Markman is a cognitive scientist at the University of Texas whose research spans a range of topics in the way people think. See full bio

Comments on "Lessons from my grandfather III: Epoxy, Dental Floss, and Causal Understanding"

Lessons from my grandfather III: Epoxy, Dental Floss, and Causal Understanding

By Art Markman, Ph.D. on July 13, 2009 in Ulterior Motives

My grandfather, Manny Gold, passed away in early July. I have written a few posts about things I learned from him. I appreciate the wonderful responses I have gotten from people about these posts. This one is the last in the series.

I did not realize how lucky I was as a kid. Few of us do, I guess. My grandparents visited every Sunday in the winter, and in the summer we went down to visit them by the New Jersey shore. When my grandfather came up to visit, he spent lots of time with us, taking us to the park or just walking around the neighborhood. But, a centerpiece of the weekly visit was a short list of things that needed to be fixed that he would take care of while he was visiting. Read More

Mr. fixit

Submitted by Amnon Orent on July 13, 2009 - 11:06am.

I never thought about how it is that I can fix so many things. We have friends from 45 years ago who live 1700 miles away, and they wait for me to come to their home to fix things. Once every five years. I am exaggerating to some extent, but the last time we were there I fixed the lock in the sliding door and I hung up some pictures they had been holding in the closet until I showed up.
So, where did I learn how to use a paper clip for a thousand a one things? How is it that I can cut and bend wire hangers for almost any household situation that requires a rig of some sort? Where does my ability to visualize these props? My father never could do these things.I never met my grandparents. One grandfather was in business.He sold feathers for the fashion world. The other grandfather was a carpenter . He died in the holocaust. However, that grandfather had a son, my uncle Moshe. He was a mechanic and I worked with him in a machine shop for six months when I was a teenager. Is that where I learned to be a rube-goldberg?
Anyway, can identify with Manny Gold. It just comes to some people and not to others.