Ever been puzzled by something and had no idea what the solution was? Good chance that in years gone by you would have asked your Dad. How to change the washer in the sink, the best type of home loan to get and why your girlfriend throws out all the reading material in the bathroom.

Dad knew all the answers to these questions (or at least pretended to know).

But then along came Mr.Internet and the Dads of the world went back to their sheds. Never to be consulted again.

For example, it has always been a fascination of mine that people can make pictures in coffee froth. I pondered this for years and even practised it on a few occasions with no success. But today was the day I stood up and said “I will no longer stand for artless coffee!” A quick YouTube search, a 30 second video and suddenly I was the Banksy of the coffee world. My Dad never taught me this (he would refuse to anyway – “you drink the thing, you don’t play with it”) but I learnt it in a couple of minutes from Papa Internet.

Just recently, a good friend of mine filled in beneath the bottom of his house to add a couple of bedrooms and a bathroom. How did he do it? He Googled it from start to finish. Given it took 3 times longer than it should have and resulted in a couple of nights on the couch, the sense of satisfaction and knowledge he gained was well worth it. We just don’t give his taps too much pressure when we turn them on.

I’ve been looking at doing some sort of simple website building course. Course fees range from $500 – $3,000. However, a Google search gives me blogs, guides and e-books on how to do this for free. All I need is some time and a little patience. While they may not give me the depth of knowledge a course would, I’ll get enough to get started and learn on the go.

In years gone by we would have gone to our Dads, friends, work mates, next door neighbour or a paid professional for this advice. However, if you’ve got a little patience to sift through the rubbish and absorb the info, you can do it all without leaving your chair. In fact, did you know that the Great Wall of China was built “to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire from Xiongnu attacks during various successive dynasties“? Nothing to do with rabbits after all…

Image courtesy of trendytape. Not my real dad.

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