u/dhhdhdhdhruruyeux

TLDR: If you can only buy your tools and supplies at Home Depot, what would you build thats actually useful?

Hi all,
About a year ago I moved to what you might call an underdeveloped country. There’s not actually a Home Depot, but the available supplies are about that quality. Mostly essential home building material. I watched a lot of YouTube videos and got excited to try building an office desk, but wanted to start small so I made a picture frame.
I went out and bought a janky table saw with a wobbly fence, a 2x6 equivalent and a bunch of hand tools. It was fun and I got it done. But it was super demoralizing. The store doesn’t have a planar so I did the best I could with the saw to level it out. The finish is an ugly polyurethane; I could only find two choices, an indoor or outdoor.
And so I kind of gave up. It’s possible to find higher quality imported stuff but it’d be slow, unreliable, expensive, and purchased sight unseen.
So my question is, would you give up woodworking or what would you build to learn some skills and make something useful? I don’t want to build boxes for the sake of building.

Hi all,

I’m an executive assistant to a senior director, let’s call him Abe. I often inform my boss of things going on I think he needs to know about. People at the company know this, and so I’m often a sounding board for gossip, rumors, and legitimate problems that need intervention. I provide advice about how to proceed, bringing it up to my boss myself if needed.

I’ve heard numerous complaints about a particular direct report of Abe, let’s call him Bob. Personal experience confirms Bob is brash, egotistical, and overly self confident. He’ll protect his image at all costs and makes decisions that have dubious payoff. I’ve heard from his direct reports that he’ll yell and berate people, especially women.

The problem is Bob and Abe are good personal friends. I’m nervous about bringing this up to Abe because I don’t think anything will change, Bob is protected- but I feel a sense of duty to do it, because Bobs direct reports feel scared to go over his head because of his friendship with Abe. Abe is not like Bob at all. Very approachable, open door, friendly.

Any advice?

Hi,
I’m Zimbabwean and recently read a book on Central Asia, “dictators without borders.” Many ideas I found familiar to what I see in my country. Is there a book that would explore the general theory of how kleptocracy evolves, how dictatorships use economics to maintain power and like that?