There's a great book written by Matthew B. Crawford called Shop Class as Soul Craft which is a must-read for any man (or woman) who has marveled at the workings of a machine (especially one with an internal combustion engine) and attempted to fix it himself. His arguments for the intellectual merit of skilled trades and craftsmanship are superb, and I often found myself jotting my agreement in the margins. He tackles our throw-away culture head-on by preaching the forgotten, yet still true, value of knowing how one's "stuff" works. Anyway, read the book if you get the chance. You won't regret it, and you'll probably end up saving a bunch of money while simultaneously learning more about the things you take for granted in your life. For those who have more dollars than sense, this book should at least serve as a wake-up call that their definition of "knowledge work" needs some adjustment. If your mechanic (or plumber, or electrician, etc) is practicing a trade that pays $60,000+ a year and you are forced to admit that he knows 100 times more than you about automobiles, what about his trade is not knowledge-related? Is it because he works with his hands and gets greasy? Is it because he smokes or uses foul language? Come on, folks; we all have those capabilities, and many of us would gladly use them to make as much as some mechanics, but truth be told, most of us aren't smart enough. Some of you are probably thinking, "I know some mechanics, and there is no way they qualify as smart." Maybe not--not by today's definition of smart--but who would you want working on your Boeing 747 before takeoff; a doctor, lawyer, teacher, accountant, or greasy professional airline mechanic? The answer to this obviously-rhetorical question is the latter, but why? Because mechanics are educated and Crawford does an excellent job of detailing his own "gearhead" education in the book. This is the man who left a position as the executive director of a Washington think-tank to start his own motorcycle repair shop, because the work was more fulfilling; more tangible. Fascinating stuff.
After roughly six years of college education, and a pending Master's in Secondary Education, I have to say that my most intellect-challenging, brain-stretching moments have been under the hood of a car or bent over the minute passages of a disassembled motorcycle carburetor. That revelation has persuaded me to add a new aspect to this blog: the "Projects" label. Rather than speak abstractly about cool cars and motorcycles as some unattainable mystical unicorns, I'll endeavor to work on, or build them myself. Along the way, I'll try to document the process and present it here. Wish this "grease monkey" luck.
