On 6 Nov 2006 22:06:36 -0800, "Andy" wrote:


But I am curious why you apparently feel
threatened by someone extoling the increasingly rare virtues of
craftsmanship, just because the craftsman in his example used hand
tools. Sure, there are plenty of "woodworkers" who buy expensive
planes and chisels just because they're expensive or pretty, and then
spend most of their time diddling with them instead of using them to
their fullest potential. Just as there are with power-tool-happy
"woodworkers", who buy a machine just because of a new gimmick or an HP
rating. But I don't think that was the point of the OP.

Why is then that Tom turns out a post pretty much exactly like this
every now and again and it's always the hand tool using guy that is
the brilliant craftsman and the power tool user that can't find his
way around the lumberyard? If he means to suggest something else then
perhaps he should start mixing up his stories a bit.

On a digital photography site I visit there are an enormous number of
people referred to as "measurbaters" who like to compare the photos
from compares on a pixel by pixel basis and like to point out things
that no one but they can see that are just horrible and make the
camera utterly useless. And they have to have the latest camera of
course. And you never see any actual photographs from these people.
The number of photographers there with any actual talent is very small
(and I'm not one of them) and they are too busy actually doing their
work to worry about such things.

Pretty much in any field it's the same story. You have extremes at
both ends. The vast majority of us are somewhere in the middle just
trying to get the job done as best they can with whatever means works
for them.


-Leuf