A Practical Man’s Guide
Author: Jack Vance
Year written: 1956
Author’s age at the time: 40
Year published: August 1957
Publication: Space Science Fiction Magazine
Genre: short story, SF
Quote:
Banks made few blunders. Twelve years he had ridden the tiger, and in the process had developed a head for his job which amounted to second-sight; by now he was able to relax, enjoy his work, and indulge himself in his hobby, which was the collecting of freakish inventions.
Republished in The World-Thinker and Other Stories, Spatterlight, 2012.