A friend just died of shellack poisoning. It’s o.k. he had a nice finish.

Been here, solved it this way more than once.



Two men stood in the middle of a field, staring at the stubborn fence post that needed to be driven into the ground.

The brainy guy, always one to overanalyze, began listing everything they had to do. “First, we’ll need to construct a blacksmith building to forge our tools. That means sourcing raw materials like iron ore and charcoal. Then, we’ll have to build a furnace to heat the ore until it’s malleable. After that, we’ll need to create an anvil, which requires us to find a suitable block of metal and shape it properly. Once we have the anvil, we’ll need to design and build a sledgehammer, which involves cutting and shaping wood for the handle and forging the hammerhead itself. And don’t forget, we’ll also need to build a proper workspace to house all these tools!”

He continued, growing more animated as he spoke, “Once we have our sledgehammer, we can finally drive the fence post into the ground. But wait, we should probably think about the best technique to use to ensure we don’t split the post. Should we measure the depth first? We might also need to stake out the area to make sure the post is perfectly aligned. And, of course, we’ll need safety goggles—can’t forget about safety! This whole process could take days, if not weeks, before we can even think about getting that post in the ground.”

As he finished his elaborate plan, the other man stood quietly, looking around. With a bemused expression, he pointed to a large rock sitting nearby and said, “Why don’t we just use that big rock?”