A mechanic that is always in a hurry is incapable of doing good honest work. The excitable man who is always “flying around,” and whose tools are never at hand when wanted, does not amount to much; he may be busy all day, and apparently — in fact, does — work hard and seems to get over a great deal of ground, but what he does do is neither fine nor substantial. The cool, calm workman who allows himself neither to be driven nor persuaded to do more than a solid day’s work is the man who leaves his impress on each piece of work he turns out, and a hundred years hence it may be found as good and as solid as the day he completed it; but where! Oh, where! will be the work that was thrown together at the same date, by the man who was always “flying around?”
The Builder & WoodWorker – March, 1881, Fred T. Hodgson, editor.
In the modern parlance: Work smarter, not harder.
This a great concept, it’s too bad that the millennial generation thinks that multi-tasking with either a cell phone in one ear or earbuds blasting music is the way to be successful !
Some of them feel that way, yes. But there are those of us who still find joy in true hard work. I’m 29 and grew up with computers, video games and the Internet, yet I am still so far behind most of my contemporaries. Long Live Hard Work!
There’s really no point in stereotyping entire generations. I’m 29 as well, and I’ve never owned an iPad or an iPod, but I do have more saws and planes than any rational person can justify. I may look like “the excitable man who is always ‘flying around’ “, when I work in the shop, but it’s not my cell phone’s (or my generation’s) fault.
“Only those who have the patience to do simple things perfectly will acquire the skill to do difficult things easily.” Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805)
This is great, and precisely why I hate all those shows on TV where a whole house is renovated in one week. I’ve worked in a few wood shops where the same value system holds, speed and quantity over quality. As a result most people don’t value anything they own and spend their lives working their asses off to buy as much plastic crap as they can hold in their gigantic houses.
Well said. Too many folks spend most of their lives doing crap, in any job, to buy more crap and they find their lives are empty and shallow. They raise kids to think just like themselves and they procreate more of the same. Truer words about taking time and careful work cannot be overestimated. I applaud your work ethic and know that I am not alone when a client keeps bugging me to “hurry up”. I always ask “Do you want crap or do you want quality?”. I’ve lost a few in my day, but those that return for another piece of my work are very valuable clients. Keep up the good writing and let us craftsman still have faith that some people give a darn about what we do.
Knowing when to zero in on a task, focusing on the detail work, and when to fly through the grunt work is a great asset. Gossamer shavings from a well tuned smoother are a wonder to behold, but not when you need a scrub plane to shift some stuff. That said, my home shop is a place of refuge, classical music, and taking the long way around, if I prefer the scenery. The commercial shop is more like running a marathon while listening to “Minor Threat” all day.
Do you want it half a##ed, or half fast?
The eternal struggle between the craftsman and the businessman. The shoddy one with a little wood dough and finish will look very much like the centennial heirloom and sell for the same price.
The way I learned it was in a print shop, the poster on the wall said, “Good, Fast, Cheap. Pick any two.” 🙂
Yep, that’s the way I’ve heard it, too, Dave.
I love throwing it out to people when they ask for the world…
“You can’t HAVE the world. You can only have a part of it; but you get to decide which part.”
This is the crap I have to struggle with every single work day.
Pretty much everything I’ve ever F’d up was because I got impatient and rushed it. Fixing it took longer than the time to do it right. Finishes are a great example. It usually goes something like thos with me: “Yeah, I know the instructions say to wait longer between coats, but I can control the laws of nature and drying times and besides, what’s the worst thing that can happen … crap I just added two days to the poject.” Sometimes doing it right means walking away until the impatient gene goes dormant again and you’re in the proper frame of mind to complete the task corectly.
Reblogged this on larrymade.