It's a normal reaction to try and catch something if you drop it, after
    a few years you lose this reaction when you drop a soldering iron :-).

I've heard that suggested as a test for the level of practical experience
level of interview candidates - knock a soldering iron off the table...

OTOH, cooks develop similar non-reflexes.  None of knives, cleavers, or
hot things from the pan are "to be caught."  In general: dodge !

OTTH, have you ever watched or seen the work of a full-time professional
rework technician (even those whom apparently lack any ambition toward
being an engineer)?  Amazing stuff...

You can also have a lot of fun if you take some (say) networking software
experts (say, BGP, Novell, and IP Multicast authors) and throw them in a
room with some actual routers, DSUs, and CABLES.  I had a wonderful time
watching a non-working T1-connection get debugged at half-a-dozen different
levels at a cisco Networkers meeting a few years back...

BillW

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