Topic: Which one of you guys wrote this?

[MacM2010]

Yesterday's New York Times magazine ran a pretty good piece by a PhD-type who quit his job at a think tank to work on vintage motorcycles:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/magazine/24labor-t.html?hpw

The book, "Shop Class as Soulcraft," comes out this week.  Sounds pretty interesting.

[rhos1355]

Mac,
I think you have opened a window to the soul of a lot of people. Many if not most of the people I meet tell me they either 'hate' their job or at least find everyday work an intrusion to their lives. Count me in on the last one.
You have also opened a big can of worms. The writer of the article says he "finished a pH.D in political Philosophy" in 2000.
Political Philosophy? WTF is that when it's at home? To me it sounds like one of the thousands of flippy floppy cotton wool study courses available at university in the past 10-15 years. The coincidence here is that is the amount of time Labour has been in power over here. So, we get twenty something year olds that have degrees that are next to worthless searching for jobs at the end of 4 very expensive years of higher education. Case in point; a couple of years ago I worked on a £88 million construction project. The project Document Controller/Administration Clerk/ Secretary was a very bright young lady who just previously had attained a degree in...........French!!
My wife was trained for 2 years at what was then known as "secretarial college" in the late '60s and is now an administrator to the grounds an estates office in a large private school and could have done the job standing on one leg. The comparisons boggle the mind.
Another story; In the 90s I worked as an aluminium TIG welder in a small engineering factory in Holland. One of my colleagues was a man in his mid thirties with what you would describe as "learning difficulties". His task was to fabricate 1200 components of varying sizes on a cold forming lathe each working day. Simple job; stick the wooden form in the jaws jam a soft aluminium disc against it, spin the lathe and with a stout wooden bar force the aluminium over the wooden form. 1200 times a day! He loved his job. Never ill. Rarely wanted to go on holidays. But we teased him mercilessly.
One day my boss called me over and told me to thank my lucky stars this man still wanted to do that particular job, why? Because if he wasn't here, you'd be doing it, he said.
I looked upon that colleague with respect until the day I left. I bet he's still there smiling happily, still churning out those 1200 components.
This world isn't made by the super duper educated office wallahs, it's made by the billions of simple folk doing essential work, folk we' could not do without.

[Tim.]

Completing a Phd in Political Philosophy is just a piece of paper to hang on the wall that says you could afford to spend 10% of your lifetime reading and writing.

I can think of more interesting ways to spend the money and the 8 or whatever years it would take, and certainly more interesting things to read and write about.

[333]

It seems to me that a degree in any kind of philosophy only qualifies you to tell me why you took the philosophy classes in the first place.  And probably in language I can't understand.

[gerhed]

Leno advocates "actual work" in his column in Popular Mechanics every month.

[cb650]

How much work does Leno do on his stuff?   I like the guy and all he has done.  I'm sure he does some work but you never see anything but him driving.

[MacM2010]

I think the best point in the article is about how "actual work" will help your other work - that the problem-solving skills that come from something like rebuilding a motorcycle engine are just as valuable as the "analytical skills" that come from, say, a PhD in political philosophy.  Probably even more valuable.

When I finished college, one of my professors gave this long speech about how, in the same way that both archery and flower arranging are paths to Zen enlightenment (I know I'm getting that wrong, but forgive me), an education isn't so much about the destination (a degree in French) as it is about the journey.  Getting a degree is about learning to learn, in a way.  The article is right to point out that you can learn to learn just as well fixing an internal combustion engine as you can by studying Dante.

However, not a lot of people see it that way.  My wife's boss is a total snob for degrees, and because of this the one guy at her job who knows how to do everything is ineligible for a full-time position.  He has to beg and plead for a new contract every summer to get a terrible part-time deal with no benefits and bad hours.  He keeps the place running, but because he didn't finish his math credit thirty years ago, he can't do the "actual work" that needs to be done and get appropriately compensated for it.

Obviously, the boss couldn't fix anything if his life depended on it, and so he surrounds himself with people just as incompetent at "actual work" as he is, so he's not intimidated.  I think the way "actual work" is treated by a lot of people - as a "low" way to make a living - is because of these same feelings of intimidation.  Maybe this economic downturn will change things, so that actually making something will be respected again, but I doubt it.

Something the article's author didn't say, of course, was that it's flipping hard to make a living fixing motorcycles.  Especially when there's a place like this that helps people do it themselves. 

[Bob Wessner]

Getting a degree is about learning to learn,

Exactly. 

[BobbyR]

I read the article, and if you read the responses, it was very positive. I was surprised  since Times readers tend to be elitist. Maybe America is taking a good look at it;s values - and what is valuable.

[rhos1355]

Getting a degree is about learning to learn,

Exactly. 

Shouldn't we have learnt that already in mainstream education? i.e. primary and secondary schools?

[tramp]

the problem is companies rely on a piece of paper more than experience
a piece of paper does not make you smart
we had a welding engineer who had a degree in music with a minor in welding
who was the lead welder
many welders with experience could have done the job better
i would always go for the expereince rather than a piece of paper

[gerhed]

How much work does Leno do on his stuff?   I like the guy and all he has done.  I'm sure he does some work but you never see anything but him driving.

I imagine he does some work, but he has hundreds of machines.
I have a hand full of vehicles and I find deciding what to do and then doing it to be a daunting task, at times.
In any case the guy is an inspiration to me--(a non-drinking gearhead)
Which I have become in the last 15 years.

[sangyo soichiro]

I didn't see this article as education vs. non-education, I saw it as working for yourself vs. working for someone else.  I'm not sure the author saw it that way though...

This guy had bad experiences when he was forced (by his employers) to do ridiculous things.  Now he works for himself and can do whatever he dandy-well pleases.  And he can do it as fast or slow as he dandy-well pleases.  Try that when working for someone else...

I just wonder how this article might read if this guy had a boss crawling down his neck for dropping the feeler gauge in the Ninja....

[Gordon]

This guy had bad experiences when he was forced (by his employers) to do ridiculous things.  Now he works for himself and can do whatever he dandy-well pleases.  And he can do it as fast or slow as he dandy-well pleases.  Try that when working for someone else...

And when working for yourself there's still the customer to consider, and they don't typically take well to the "I'll do it as fast or slow as I dandy-well please" attitude. 

If there's money to be made, you're always working for someone else. 

[sangyo soichiro]

Of course, the article does make a good point that it's rewarding to see the end result of your hard work.  It's easier to see the results when you actually make something.  I think cubicle life would drive me nuts.

[Bob Wessner]

This guy had bad experiences when he was forced (by his employers) to do ridiculous things. 

Hmm, sounds like my army days. 

[sangyo soichiro]

This guy had bad experiences when he was forced (by his employers) to do ridiculous things. 

Hmm, sounds like my army days. 

DI: "I need a volunteer who can drive."
(Private Wessner timidly raises his hand...)
DI: "PRIVATE WESSNER!  Drive that wheelbarrow over to that hole!"
Pvt. Wessner:  "Yes Sir!"   



 

[Bob Wessner]

This guy had bad experiences when he was forced (by his employers) to do ridiculous things. 

Hmm, sounds like my army days. 

Calling your DI "sir" is a painful mistake. 


DI: "I need a volunteer who can drive."
(Private Wessner timidly raises his hand...)
DI: "PRIVATE WESSNER!  Drive that wheelbarrow over to that hole!"
Pvt. Wessner:  "Yes Sir!"   



 

[BobbyR]

This guy had bad experiences when he was forced (by his employers) to do ridiculous things.  

Hmm, sounds like my army days.  

Calling your DI "sir" is a painful mistake.  





DI: "I need a volunteer who can drive."
(Private Wessner timidly raises his hand...)
DI: "PRIVATE WESSNER!  Drive that wheelbarrow over to that hole!"
Pvt. Wessner:  "Yes Sir!"    



 

We had a recruit throw up after a run our DI told him "You better pick that **** up and put it in your pocket." He actually tried it was a pisser.

[ryder60]

Sometimes I think that young people who go straight from high school to university aren't served best by the experience.  We sometimes learn to learn in U. but it can also make us more true to ourselves if we have had some life experience.  It is often the values we hold that make us real or unreal, good for others or not good for others.  Those of you who went to U. after serving in the forces came out of it a person more true to yourself than some of the younger ones did.

I couldn't get the article to open but the sense of what I can guess about it from what is written here confirms to me that there are two sorts of educations you can get in or out of school.  There are 'how to' educations and there are 'why' educations.  After spending 8 years working nights to complete a 'why' education I never made a profession of it but I always used it.  Also, my opinion is that we all get some gratification from starting, completing and being able to look back on our completed work, welding or carpentry or whatever.  There are more people than we imagine who have never had that experience.