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I totally get where you are coming from and I agree to your general premise of judging and evaluating the skills actually needed for the job. However, your com

by ascar 5y ago

I totally get where you are coming from and I agree to your general premise of judging and evaluating the skills actually needed for the job. However, your comment seems to miss the point and context of this story. It's about craftsman doing car manufacturing, so a test in dexterity and skill with your hands isn't completely out of line like you make it sound with your IT example. But even more importantly, this isn't about employment, it's about reaching a special status of excellence after at least 25 years of experience and ample time to prepare for this challenge, which doesn't just show skill and dexterity, but also patience and willingness to learn an otherwise useless skill. There is intrinsic value to the last part that often gets overlooked.

gerdesj 5y ago
>> but also patience and willingness to learn an otherwise useless skill Origami is certainly not useless! I've been doing it (badly) for 40 years. Some satellites unfurl their solar panels along some very cunningly designed mountain and valley folds. My paper maps get a different set of folds than they are manufactured with and pop open by pulling opposite corners (a sort of pleat). The point I suppose I really failed to make properly is that forcing people (staff) to do a particular discipline rather than say allowing them to choose what it might be is a form of corporate wankery. By that I mean it looks good on paper (hah!) Mass car manufacture does involve some nimble fingers still but not quite in the origami way. The boys and girls at say Toyota near Derby (Derbyshire, UK) need incredible situational awareness for safety and good hand eye co-ordination when doing whatever their cell is doing on the line. Cars like the Ariel Atom and the seriously luxury jobs like Rolls and the super cars which are generally built as individual units from start to finish by one team need all the skills. Even then, the paint shop will be another team and so on. If I ran a car factory, I might be inclined to teach the staff how to work all materials from scratch, not just paper. I'd cover things like taps and dies in metal work - it is quite satisfying getting threads to match. Brazing and simple welding obviously. Sheet handling/bending etc. I'd cover basic concrete (1-2-3 mix for example) and simple reinforcement usage, perhaps some simple admixture usage. Woodworking would be basic joints, how to plan and build say a decking structure. I'd teach life skills. I'd probably throw in how to fold a crane or frog whilst the conc. is curing. However, I own an IT company and the staff get scared when I get the big tools out 8)
- ascar 5y ago
  I didn't want to imply that origami as a whole is useless, but doing it one-handed with your non-dominant hand under time constraints seems rather useless other than being a challenge.

by ascar 5y ago

gerdesj 5y ago

>> but also patience and willingness to learn an otherwise useless skill Origami is certainly not useless! I've been doing it (badly) for 40 years. Some satellites unfurl their solar panels along some very cunningly designed mountain and valley folds. My paper maps get a different set of folds than they are manufactured with and pop open by pulling opposite corners (a sort of pleat). The point I suppose I really failed to make properly is that forcing people (staff) to do a particular discipline rather than say allowing them to choose what it might be is a form of corporate wankery. By that I mean it looks good on paper (hah!) Mass car manufacture does involve some nimble fingers still but not quite in the origami way. The boys and girls at say Toyota near Derby (Derbyshire, UK) need incredible situational awareness for safety and good hand eye co-ordination when doing whatever their cell is doing on the line. Cars like the Ariel Atom and the seriously luxury jobs like Rolls and the super cars which are generally built as individual units from start to finish by one team need all the skills. Even then, the paint shop will be another team and so on. If I ran a car factory, I might be inclined to teach the staff how to work all materials from scratch, not just paper. I'd cover things like taps and dies in metal work - it is quite satisfying getting threads to match. Brazing and simple welding obviously. Sheet handling/bending etc. I'd cover basic concrete (1-2-3 mix for example) and simple reinforcement usage, perhaps some simple admixture usage. Woodworking would be basic joints, how to plan and build say a decking structure. I'd teach life skills. I'd probably throw in how to fold a crane or frog whilst the conc. is curing. However, I own an IT company and the staff get scared when I get the big tools out 8)

ascar 5y ago
I didn't want to imply that origami as a whole is useless, but doing it one-handed with your non-dominant hand under time constraints seems rather useless other than being a challenge.