The Case for Working With Your Hands

“You can’t hammer a nail over the Internet.”

“Some people are hustled off to college, then to the cubicle, against their own inclinations and natural bents, when they would rather be learning to build things or fix things.”

“It is a rare person, male or female, who is naturally inclined to sit still for 17 years in school, and then indefinitely at work.”

“The trades suffer from low prestige, and I believe this is based on a simple mistake. Because the work is dirty, many people assume it is also stupid.”

“…they never take into account the risks of working on old machines. So you put the manual away and consider the facts before you. You do this because ultimately you are responsible to the motorcycle and its owner, not to some procedure.”

“Cognitive psychologists speak of “metacognition,” which is the activity of stepping back and thinking about your own thinking… to be a good mechanic you have to be constantly open to the possibility that you may be mistaken. This is a virtue that is at once cognitive and moral.”