Heard an old timer say 'tight joints are lazy joints' and it stuck with me

I was on a site last Tuesday near Austin helping with a retaining wall and one of the older guys, must have been 70 or so, was watching me lay some brick. He just said 'tight joints are lazy joints' out of nowhere and walked off. At first I was annoyed, like who is this guy critiquing my spacing without even asking. But later I realized he was right about my mortar joints being too compact (I was rushing to get done before lunch). I started leaving a hair more space for the mortar to breathe and grab, and my wall actually looked cleaner after that. The whole interaction got me thinking about how much I still have to learn from the old school methods. Has anyone else had a random one-liner from a journeyman totally shift how you approach a job?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_seth4d ago

I was reading something not long ago about how older tradesmen communicate in short statements like that because they learned by watching and doing, not by reading manuals. That line about lazy joints makes total sense though because rushing always costs you more time in the end. Ive seen the same thing with dog grooming actually where new people try to make everything perfect and tight but it ends up looking worse than someone who leaves a little room for the natural shape of the animal. Those old timers have a way of cutting through the noise with one sentence and it sticks because its true. Sounds like that guy did you a favor even if it stung at first.

wyattmitchell3d ago

Push back on that. Some of the best mentors I had were talkers who explained every step.