http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/shop-class-as-soulcraft Anybody read it? I highly recommend it. The thread on why we drive our cars got me to thinking about why we build them...and fix them...and tinker..and tweak them, constantly. Seems to me that we work on them for different reasons than we drive them. I come home from a day at work in an office and can't wait to finish dinner and get out in my garage and get to work on something. It's relaxing, even when it's frustrating...or maybe "challenging" is a better word...I get a bigger sense of accomplishment and satisfaction from a night in the garage than I do from a day in the office. Which probably means I should consider a career change...I wonder if I'm too old to start something new, or if turning a hobby into a job will kill the thrill...I love to cook for friends and family, but would hate to do it for a living.
Very thought provoking article, nail-head. Perhaps our projects help maintain our sanity. Makes me glad I'm an old fart and don't have to deal with the changes the younger folks are facing.
THOUGHT vs ACTION! Picked up that book couple weeks ago. My son packed it off to college but now he's back and I'm reading it again. Good thoughts on the two camps of THOUGHT versis ACTION - they are not mutually exclusive but are complimentary. Or should be anyway. The ideal is to be adept in both worlds at the same time. Known a few people who tended to be exclusive in one camp or the another. Guys who could do mechanical things but had never read history, culture, art, etc. And then there are those who may be well "educated" but couldn't change a flat tire or pound a nail! Indeed, some think such activities are beneath them. Ignorance on either level is a limit on our lives...
I read that book on recommendation of a fellow HAMBer. It puts into words many of my thoughts and much more. I'll be the first to admit that this book will likely force you to expand your vocabulary. It did mine.
looked like a bunch of nonsense to me. some dude babbling on about nothing just to hear himself speak.
I read it a few weeks back thought it was so right on, a bit deep in parts but overall very good. Having made my living as a tradesman for thirty years but having started out on a professional career that sucked, I started doing something I really enjoyed, I could really relate. I think Crawford made a good point that not every body needs a college degree to make it, and you can make a good living and be happy doing it. Now if the educators of this country could dig this and start bringing back shop class and industrial arts we'd have alot more hot rods and happy cats.
I picked up this too a couple weeks back. Through layovers and the flight (I bought it at an airport book shop) I was getting into it. I haven't finished it, so don't tell me how it ends . So far it is a good read though.
The comparison to Pirsig is obvious, but Crawford is more academic and analytical, much less mystic. It was his way of articulating the value of working with your head and your hands...and the connections he made to how we work and how we (as a society) value work, and the consequences in everything from economics to sociology and politics that I found interesting.
fantastic book, just finished it. was going to start a thread, but ill just bump this one. would be cool to get a few more thoughts on it, anyone read it since June?
Interesting book. As a former High School Auto Mechanics teacher it hits pretty close to home. I was riffed and the program was closed in 1991. The school administrators were just getting on the everyone has to go to College kick and vocational classes took a beating at that time. The town I live near and grew up in no has no shop in town where you can take a head and have the valves ground or take a block and have it cleaned and bored. it's twenty five miles in one direction or another to get that done. You have to go to a tire store to get a drum or rotor turned at a stiff price and are at their mercy time wise. We do have an abundance of "rebuild shops" that run totals in one side and shiny painted cars that may be a bit suspect out the other basis at a record rate though.
I have it on cd, listened to it twice so far. Love it. If you dont have much time to read because you spend so much time on here books on cd are the answer.
I'm currently reading it. The last book to make me think about reading it for another time before finishing the first was Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I will get copies for the boys to read. One of the daughters gets one, too.
zen was pretty great also. soulcraft and zen are two of maybe 50 books that I totally intend to hold on to forever and recomend often! There is so much more to our rides than shows and brotherhood. there is always quite an "intune" feeling i get when working on it.
I'm just starting this book, given as a gift. So far it's very interesting. As I'm just getting into my own build and finding out just how much I don't know about everything, I though this line very timely: "Old bikes(cars) don't flatter you, they educate you."
Finished it a couple of months ago. Good insight on why we do what we do. If you work in an office crunching numbers, it is a fairly depressing read.
I tried to read the article...but found it difficult as I was persistently slapped in the face by unnecessary wordsmithing...how about that for being wordy? The author was trying to be a little too fancy for my taste.... I am a fan of making deep, meaningful ideas made simple not complicated...
The Jalopy Journal
