If you're stupid, you're going to vocational school

A bricklayer who works for us sometimes is a Ukrainian and is by training a gynecologist. At least that's what he claims, and after seeing him work, I believe him. He might uncover a pipe in the wall that no one knows about. He doesn't become unsure of himself. He taps it with his hammer, places his ear to the radiator and diagnoses the pipe to be connected to the radiator. It's classical doctor's methodology.

This bricklayer, like others on my (secret) list of good bricklayers, has very little time and lots of work. My hairdresser must also search for a very long time in her calendar to find an open slot because she has many customers. According to her, an important skill if you're a hairdresser is to have a large vocabulary. "If you cannot agree with your client, I try to describe it in as many ways as possible until her eyes light up, and she finally understands." The point is, you can't just do something on someone's hair. There are other elements to the work, including understanding.

But everyone has stories like this about workers. It's a favourite genre. In some the worker is a superman, in others a thief. The question is what separates such a bricklayer, hairdresser and other superheros from the villains. The answer: The capable workers were not educated in vocational schools. Hairdresser Eva went to art high school, and bricklayer Josef, as has already been said, has university education. They…