Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work

by Matthew B. Crawford

While manufacturing jobs have certainly left our shores to a disturbing degree, the manual trades have not. If you need a deck built, or your car fixed, the Chinese are of no help. Because they are in China.

The meta-work of trafficking in the surplus skimmed from other people’s work suddenly appears as what it is,

itself—craftsmanship has been said to consist simply in the desire to do something well, for its own sake.

The satisfactions of manifesting oneself concretely in the world through manual competence have been known to make a man quiet and easy.

Craftsmanship means dwelling on a task for a long time and going deeply into it, because you want to get it right.