Ahhh, the joys of the ignorance of youth
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"........... — all too often oldsters more than the young — are too quick to disbelieve the existence of things of which they've never heard (fractional metric whatevers)."
If the life one's led hasn't exposed oneself to such things as number drills, letter drills, BSP thread (parallel), BSPT (taper), and Lord knows how may other "mysteries", then those of us that have been "blessed" with a familiarity in these "Black Arts" should know better than to look down upon the uninitiated regardless of their age
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"...........I know a lot of academics, mostly Ph.D.s, from a lot of different institutions and nations and they're often much the same: A belief that their training, skills and experience in the narrow confines of their highly specific area of research in their particular field makes them equally knowledgeable in all things."
I wouldn't highlight Ph.D.s., although you may be right...........I've known too many (professional) tradesmen working in the "service industres" eg: builders, brickies, etc., who have experienced this from especially teachers, lawyers, etc., and I won't even go into my own experiences
