Is It Worth Paying Extra for Professional Expertise?

Listen, I'm a big fan of DIY. I'm also a fan of bootstrapping, and self-education. But it's so important to know your limitations - to know when you just don't know enough - and to pay someone who does. When you hire a pro, you get someone with both expertise and experience, which translates into better work overall. More importantly, perhaps, it results in fewer screw-ups on your project and actually less money invested over the long term, even if the pro costs more (good clean-ups get mighty pricey, especially because folks are often in a hurry to get the clean-up done quick).

Case in point

This is just a simple paint job on a simple delivery van:



One just needs the basic info, a decent painter, and that's that: what could possibly go wrong? Of course, someone with little design experience might not realize that painting an object with moveable parts might result in unaccounted-for scenarios. They may fail to ask the burning question: That looks great on the side of your van, but what happens when you open the door?



So yeah, just think about that the next time you're trying to do something you've never done before. Moral of the post (a.k.a. DIY design tip): account for multiple user scenarios or cough up for an expert who knows what to look for!


[Images from Jalopnik, originally posted to FailBlog]