

The craftsman in us all - danw
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,2250725,00.html

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tristian
Cool. This has come at a good time for me. I've been working on a problem
where I've been going down quite a few dead ends. Conceptually the problem
shouldn't be that hard to solve, so I've been berating my self a bit about
failing to hit on the solution correctly the first time.

So where the article mentions: "To arrive at that goal, the craftsman at work
has instead to dwell in waste, following up dead ends". That perfectly
describes how it feels to struggle through this problem, with code strewn
around and thrown away in different approaches.

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danw
Build one to throw away as it were

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wallflower
While I was struggling making my first (and so far, last) piece of furniture,
I got some sage advice. The woodworker said, “Woodworking is about problem
solving. There is no right or wrong. Only smarter, faster, and safer. It
doesn't matter how you do it, as long as it looks nice.”

He added, "Do you think the true masters of furniture making don't make
mistakes? They do. They shim stuff up. You think everything's perfect, but
it's not. You can't even tell." It's ok and part of the process to make
mistakes.

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Olgaar
The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne \--Geoffrey Chaucer

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Olgaar
The craftsman style in archtitecture has seen a tremendous resurgance in
popularity since the late 90s. People seem to more and more value the
attention to detail and appreciation for natural materials.

Small home arts & crafts are increasingly more popular (did you know
scrapbooking is a >$3 billion industry in the US?). Look at the popularity of
Etsy.com: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=124684>

I feel like society is going in 2 directions. One the hand, people are willing
to accept low/lower quality in items/services, in particular if they're being
made free. But also the availablity of information in the form of online
instruction and tutorials is reducing the barriers of entry for many
individuals, sparking their interest in hand-made high-quality items.

Other than saying I agree with this article, I don't really have a point here,
just voicing some thoughts I've been pondering quite a bit in the last couple
months.

