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I don't like this much - somewhat vague romantic sentimentalism under a heading of "craft". I don't consider recognising trees as craft... or ride-on mowers as

I don't like this much - somewhat vague romantic sentimentalism under a heading of "craft". I don't consider recognising trees as craft... or ride-on mowers as blue-collar... or being afraid of someone on the street at night as recognising the "soon to be broken"... or that "cadence" is a safety measure. It's often the reverse, cadence suggests not stopping when safety/quality is often about anyone being able to stop the line. As for the "family fixer"... I've known a few and the motivation has not been craft but as an emotional escape. Sit down and talk to your family? Nope, time to rehang all the pictures on the wall. I can recognise their panicked scan of their environment, desperately looking for something that could need attention. I think we often see "craft" type justifications for unnecessary work in software teams that are really avoidance of something more aversive. Where I find the "fixer" perspective interesting, it's understanding that the world is mutable and that you have the power to change it. It's a more natural human instinct to accept things that are causing a problem. It's not even lazinesses holding people back, it's not seeing the possibilities.

rcme 3y ago
Fixing the loose leg of a table at a restaurant using a coin is definitely not craft.
yuvalr1 3y ago
I think we're too used to just replace things instead of fixing them. Fixing requires understanding of how things work, and I think it's a shame most of us (I include myself) don't have enough of this understanding regarding our day to day tools and objects. If fixing something requires calling an expert, it makes it much less appealing to fix it, than just throw it away and buy something new. This relatively new attitude creates motivation to even further divest in quality and prefer creating cheap things that break fast, because we won't invest the time and money needed to fix them anyway.
dfee 3y ago
I concluded that the author is an outsider (to craftsmanship) looking through the glass at an accessible insider (grandfather). Whether the grandfather was, or would consider himself to be an insider, we can’t glean and don’t know, respectively. It’s a sort of longing piece, and that’s OK, but not what I expected going into it!

rcme 3y ago

Fixing the loose leg of a table at a restaurant using a coin is definitely not craft.

yuvalr1 3y ago

I think we're too used to just replace things instead of fixing them. Fixing requires understanding of how things work, and I think it's a shame most of us (I include myself) don't have enough of this understanding regarding our day to day tools and objects. If fixing something requires calling an expert, it makes it much less appealing to fix it, than just throw it away and buy something new. This relatively new attitude creates motivation to even further divest in quality and prefer creating cheap things that break fast, because we won't invest the time and money needed to fix them anyway.

dfee 3y ago

I concluded that the author is an outsider (to craftsmanship) looking through the glass at an accessible insider (grandfather). Whether the grandfather was, or would consider himself to be an insider, we can’t glean and don’t know, respectively. It’s a sort of longing piece, and that’s OK, but not what I expected going into it!