A Book Review: Shop Class As Soulcraft & Redefining the Value of Work

I was originally drawn to the title Shop Class As Soul Craft after watching Jack Nickell of Threadless at the TEDxBoulder event last summer. In his presentation, he challenged everyone to make something, every day. I was truly inspired after the event. The idea of making something – anything – with my hands held a very tactile appeal for me and is one I don’t often get to experience simply working on a computer. I probably romanticize the idea to some extent but believe there is overlooked value in being able to make or repair things.

Jack’s talk is why I picked up the book at the Boulder Book store. I don’t know what I was expecting but this is a weighty, thought-provoking, get-your-dictionary-out, academic book. Maybe I was expecting some sort of feel-good expose on the rising importance of self-reliance and need for craftsmen, which is in there but there is so much more to it that simply recommending shop class be brought back or kids learn how to use a table saw.

Here are some of the major ideas that I’m still thinking about a week after finishing the book.

On custom options for a bike or teddy bear. Are we really creating or making an original object? According to the author…

A judgement of the goodness has already been made by some dimly grasped others…The consumer is disburdened not only of the fabrication, but of a basic evaluative activity. The consumer is left with a mere decision…..But because the field of options generated by market forces maps a collective consciousness, the consumer’s vaunted freedom within it might  be understood as a tyranny of the majority that he has internalized.

The readiness to do away with intuitive judgment and replace it with rules.

The crux of the idea of an intellectual technology is the “substitution of algorithms (problem-solving rules) for intuitive judgments. These algorithms may be embodied in an automatic machine or computer program or a set of instructions based on some statistical or mathematical formula.

Standards

Standards have a universal validity… A carpenter faces the accusation of his level, an electrician must answer the question of whether the lights are in fact on,…

There are many more of these ideas throughout the book and I highly recommend picking it up. I know that when I finished it I thought about my own work, what I create, what standards I aim for as a definition of success. It’s a little harder when it comes to creating content; there is no universal standard for defining it’s quality. Maybe good grammar or sentence structure is one definition but assessing its quality can be considered a subjective thing unlike whether the lights are on or off.

There is just so much to this book, so many ideas on how work has evolved, how reliance on judgement and intuition have become less valued in some industries, namely those that are more easily outsourced.  And so the jobs once perceived as lower on the pay scale, requiring less critical thinking are the ones that may blend the skills and intelligence most suited for the 21st century. The plumber, the mechanic, the tailor may be the jobs of the future – the ones where what you make and its adherence to a universal standard of quality are the jobs that reemerge as coveted professional roles.