Blew a tire on I-40 last week, fixed it myself.

Pulled over near a rest stop outside Nashville. Had a spare and a jack, got it changed in 20 minutes. Felt weirdly proud. Is it normal to feel good about fixing your own flat?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_drew10d ago

We never really get to feel that kind of immediate, concrete success in most of life. It's not like you spent hours researching or negotiating. You just saw a problem, had the tools handy, and solved it in a tidy 20 minutes. That's a dopamine hit our brains aren't used to getting from daily life. It's the same reason people feel weirdly good about unclogging a drain themselves. It's straight proof you handled something that could have ruined your whole afternoon.

thompson.tyler10d ago

My uncle Dave had a similar moment last summer when his lawnmower just died halfway through cutting the grass. He spent maybe 15 minutes checking the spark plug, found it was gunked up, cleaned it with a wire brush, and it fired right back up. @the_drew is right about that dopamine hit, because Dave was literally bragging about it at dinner that night like he’d rebuilt the engine from scratch. Funny how the smallest fixes can feel like winning a championship.

the_james10d ago

Why do you think we get more satisfaction from small fixes than big achievements?