Changing gears
I am a poor driver, though I am getting better at it (practice makes perfect). Whenever I drive, I always run through in my head the basics of driving and the various essential components that make up a vehicle: clutch, wheels, brakes, engine etc. I have been trained in the old-fashioned way as I have been taught to drive manually where using the gear lever is an integral part to safe and effective driving (I have yet to drive a car with an automatic gear system). One key skill in driving manually geared vehicles is, of course, changing gears, which needs to be smoothly controlled in order to avoid jerky instability in driving. Changing gears is also essential for speed control since it is vital to optimise the mechanics between the gear, the engine and the wheels by matching the level of the gear with engine speed (the higher the speed, the higher the gear). Rather than relying on an automatic transmission to change gears, the driver needs to regulate the gear him/herself and make sure that it is in-sync with the engine speed at all times, which has its pros and cons. The disadvantage is that it is technically more difficult, since the gear lever is another device in the vehicle that may become a burden to the driver if he/she is not well and properly trained in using it (and controlling the clutch plates with the gear lever is by no means straightforward, since it requires co-ordination between the lever, the clutch and the engine). The advantage of manual driving is that a manual and human control of the gear lever gives rise to more driving possibilities, as one can do things that are technically and mechanically impossible on a vehicle that is automatically controlled. In automatic transmission, the speed and movement of the clutch plates are automatically adjusted and optimised to the engine speed, which automatically eliminates all possible discrepancies between the mechanical parts of the vehicle that are conventionally deemed as bad driving practice. While this is obviously desirable, it also means that one misses out on some subtle usages of the clutch that may be beneficial to one’s driving. I am thinking especially of manoeuvring, namely slow and controlled movements of the vehicle by keeping the clutch at biting-point (the exact point where the clutch plates are just engaging and barely touching), which maximises the driver’s control as the vehicle is hardly driving and is fluctuating between being stationary and mobile. Again, this is not an easy technique, since it requires very subtle feet movement in making sure that the vehicle is barely moving and can be stopped whenever need be (something which I struggle with). But this is nonetheless a tremendously useful driving technique which is unavailable for drivers of automatic vehicles, as far as I know. There is little difference between driving manually and automatically when the vehicle is moving at high speed, but since it is not always possible to drive at full blast, there are often times when one needs to slow down and adopt a more subtle approach which can be significantly enhanced by using appropriate clutch control. As ever, there are trade-offs between one’s input and output, and although one can choose to take the short and easy (albeit safe) way of driving a vehicle with an automatic gear, one can achieve (so much) more by going the extra mile and mastering a further piece of technique: the gear lever. As the saying goes, ‘live and learn’. One never ceases to learn and improve, since there are always things to learn that can expand our horizons and raise our ability. Motivational.
Changing gears is one of the most fundamental skills in manual driving. In fact, it is an essential skill for manually driving a car, since gears are crucial in linking the engine and the wheels via the clutch plates and are hence important speed moderators of the vehicle. The golden rule of speed control is based on positive correlation: the higher the speed, the higher the gear, and the lower the speed the lower the gear. One is seeking optimisation between engine speed and road speed (wheelspin), and the greater the pressure one applies to the gas pedal to generate power, the higher the gear one’s vehicle needs to be in order to match the high road speed. While this is automatically taken care of in automatic transmission, it needs to be moderated by the driver in vehicles that come with a gear lever, and handling it well can make a big difference to one’s driving/riding experience, whereas doing it poorly can potentially lead to hazardous incidents. I have been taught to change gears smoothly, which requires making early anticipation and reaction to the hazards on the road and taking consequent action on manually changing the gear to the most appropriate level. If one does not react in good time, one risks making sudden and late jerky movements that might rock the vehicle and cause discomfort to self and passengers, if not more serious incidents like skidding or engine failure. Continuing our metaphor of comparing a modern vehicle to the human body, gears can be compared to our cognitive mechanisms for mood control, and as our body and mind undergo many vicissitudes when we face the external stimuli in our environment, we need to monitor our rates of productivity as there are times when we need to up our game and get into flow in order to be super-productive. Multi-tasking is a great skill to have in busy periods, since if one uses it well, one can save time by doing multiple things simultaneously. The trade-off is that this mode of working puts our system into heavy if not overload, which is to be guarded against lest we risk jeopardising our health (both physical and mental). Nonetheless, as we go through the motions in dealing with the many tedious tasks and challenges in life, we need to make sure that our mood gears are well synced to our bodily system so as to achieve the best possible effect. The key to changing gears smoothly is to switch between tasks slowly, which, as I have argued before, is critical to beating procrastination as well as many cognitive benefits. As we reach the highway no-man’s land where we can afford to hit top speed and gear, we also need to make sure that our body is working at feverish pitch, which we can also achieve by taking on tasks slowly. There will inevitably be obstacles presenting hazards on the way, but as long as we know how to get round these tricky situations, there is no reason why we cannot go at full speed and get as much done as possible. I am no car-lover but I do realise the importance of having and using a good vehicle, not solely in terms of its physical appearance but also in terms of its mechanical properties. In British and Australian English, the expression ‘ in good nick’ is commonly applied to mechanical devices that need to be kept in good condition for regular usages. We all take note of our physical appearance and we all take pains to make sure that our outward appearance is as attractive as possible, but it is equally important to ensure that our internal mechanisms are working well too, just like a car needs to have its mechanical parts checked and repaired in order to drive effectively. This we can achieve by being constantly (self-)aware of our physical and mental conditions, and it is important that we have a healthy diet as well as take good care of our minds by not overthinking or worrying about the wrong things. Let’s indeed oil over the various parts of our body and take on ( multiple) things slowly.
發表者：keithtselinguist
I am a professional linguist and I do research in theoretical linguistics, mainly formal syntax and historical/comparative linguistics. I am also a simultaneous translator/interpreter and a language teacher, and my language specialisations include Indo-European, Latin, Greek, Romance (especially Spanish) and East Asian, namely Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese). I am also interested in history and politics, especially the development of western political philosophy, which is the result of my education in the humanities (literature, history, philosophy, philology) at the University of Oxford (Balliol College). My favourite sport is football (soccer) and I am a long-term die-hard supporter of ACFiorentina in Italy: Batistuta, Baggio, Rui Costa, Toldo from the 1990s/2000s will always be in my heart, as they were my childhood heroes. For more information about me, please visit my website: https://www.keithtselinguist.com. 組合與位置，構造和意思 Numbers and words. #keithtselinguist #humanlinguist 檢視「keithtselinguist」的全部文章
Originally published at http://keithtselinguist.wordpress.com on March 8, 2023.
