"Shop Class As Soulcraft" symposium

Now would be a great time to set up a social networking site to match up craftsmen/women with those who want a honest apprenticeship. The older business people might not have the tech savvy to work it, but maybe their grand-kids would help them out, to keep the trade going.

Just an idea float...

This is kind of related, has anyone else heard the radio commercials for STP Engine Treatment and how the guy acting in the commercial doesn't want to be "that guy" anymore. "That guy" is someone who knows about multiple blends of coffee but doesn't know the difference between 5W30 and 10W30, has no idea what is under the hood of car, etc...

So even some advertisers have started to pick up on a trend of men should be able to do some basic mechanical work and not be "that guy". Normally do not pay too much attention to radio commercials when I am driving, but I kind of look forward to hearing more of these. Maybe because they hit home and I am "that guy".

Anna, good idea, what a useful use for social networking online!

I just bought that book. I should read it now. But I also bought Rapt, which is about paying attention, and am also reading A Taste of Silence, about centering prayer.

Woe is me. Too many books too little time!

So, please share the Crunchy Con gumbo recipe. Gracias.

Contra Crawford, I'd also point out that there are more modern "crafts" too that can be just as satisfying. I'd put writing good code in this category.

I'm far from a professional (but one of the advantages of HTML is that you don't have to be to get some reasonable results), but caught a bit of inspiration with a project I'd been struggling with on my way out the door on Friday...ended up hacking away at it until about 1:30 in the morning before it was right, but man, was that a satisfying feeling once it was done too.

I don't think Crawford has it exactly right (in fact, I think he misses by quite a lot.) His emphasis is on what you do, rather than how it is done. There are lots of bad "craftsmen" out there. There are lots of "craftsmen" who are every bit as demoralized as the office drones that Crawford criticizes. How you do the work and the qualities that you bring to the work are far more important than what you do (at least if the measurable is personal satisfaction, which seems to be what Crawford is talking about.) For me, the book that I go back to every four or five years is Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. The subtitle to that book is the key--An Inquiry into Values. It should be a crunchy classic.

Several years as the impoverished grad student forced me - a female - to learn oil changing etc - I once even replaced the thermostat in my radiator in a snowstorm. I felt triumphant. Somehow now the look of my engine is different though - and intimidating. However, I did put up book shelves today and last week I replaced on broken handrail. Cause like Rod's Dad - I hate paying for stuff I should be able to do myself! And yeah it feels good once completed. It is funny how us overeducated souls feels so great doing something manual - and I bet the manual laborers of the world feel great if they can accomplish something academic.

My favorite interview comments from the author himself were twofold: that he found out when you were with a think tank, you didn't have to think much, and that the difference with motor cycles is that your theory on fixing the motorcycle might seem right but could all of a sudden prove false once you tried your theory and the motorcycle didn't work.

With the neocons and Obamunists, it would seem they can just keep on setting up democracies in Muslim nations or quadrupling down on Bush's deficits with Keynes as their muse, and yet when it doesn't work, they just keep on doing the same thing anyway which would get them FIRED from a "real" job. The author's book to me seems not solely about indicting an educational system that only rewards "work that doesn't involve your hands" but about indicting both an educational system and subsequent forms of employment where there are either no testable hypotheses or where you're paid the same regardless of whether your hypotheses bear fruit.