General brake question

No offense to any mechanics on here, but I'm 54 years old and have found only about two "good" mechanics in my life. But I can tell lots of horror stories about "not good" mechanics. There should be a mechanic horror story thread, for people that like to gripe about that sort of thing.
I'll be 60 next year. I started in 1974 like an idiot when I was nine. I've been retired from a disability for a while now, but I still piddle around with my own stuff when I feel good enough. The number of stories I hear almost daily pisses me off about the level of "service" people get......especially with our older cars. They are slap easy to work on, yet everybody acts as if they take some kinda special voodoo to work on.