Matthew Crawford’s 2009 book Shop Class as Soulcraft
is reminiscent of Robert Pirsig’s 1974 cult classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Repair. Crawford also repairs
motorcycles (and with a Ph.D.), but really this book is about is the value of
craft work – of working with one’s hands to produce something tangible in the
world, as opposed to shuffling bureaucratic paper in a cubicle, or worse yet,
shuffling electrons in a computer. This is a philosophical essay about the
nature of work and workers, about how the modern corporate world dehumanizes
workers and their management and leaves them unsatisfied with life, and how one
might recover that satisfaction with a vocation, or at least an avocation, of
craft work. It is well worth reading.Monday, July 30, 2018
Recommended: Shopcraft as Soulcraft
Matthew Crawford’s 2009 book Shop Class as Soulcraft
is reminiscent of Robert Pirsig’s 1974 cult classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Repair. Crawford also repairs
motorcycles (and with a Ph.D.), but really this book is about is the value of
craft work – of working with one’s hands to produce something tangible in the
world, as opposed to shuffling bureaucratic paper in a cubicle, or worse yet,
shuffling electrons in a computer. This is a philosophical essay about the
nature of work and workers, about how the modern corporate world dehumanizes
workers and their management and leaves them unsatisfied with life, and how one
might recover that satisfaction with a vocation, or at least an avocation, of
craft work. It is well worth reading.
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