Excellent piece in NYTimes, “The Case for Working With Your Hands by Matthew B. Crawford. Don’t knock it.
In the boardrooms of Wall Street and the corridors of Pennsylvania Avenue, I don’t think you’ll see a yellow sign that says “Think Safety!” as you do on job sites and in many repair shops, no doubt because those who sit on the swivel chairs tend to live remote from the consequences of the decisions they make. Why not encourage gifted students to learn a trade, if only in the summers, so that their fingers will be crushed once or twice before they go on to run the country?
It is so refreshing to read an artice like this. It’s worth taking the time to read the whole article. I hope it gets all the attention it deserves and starts a larger discussion.
I think that the idea of spending 4 years at a liberal arts school, learning more for the sake of learning than for anything else, is a beautiful, Utopian idea…it would be wonderful if our society could support each individual taking 4+ years just to learn, not connected to any trade, not contributing to the economy (and not preparing to contribute to it in a very directed or specific sense, at least). The costs are just prohibitive, though, and tuition keeps rising…for those who can pay for it, fine. I was fortunate enough to have parents who saved money from time I was born to be able to pay for me to go to college, and I’m glad I had the education that I did. But my English major has only led to a series of unfulfilling and depressing jobs…the author’s experiences resonate with me…To encourage All people to go to a four-year college, though (usually accumulating a sizeable amount of debt in the process) is a very narrow-minded view, divorced from market realities.
Brand expert John Tantillo published a post on his marketing blog a few months ago about the importance of focusing on one’s personal brand in a weakened market. In it, he also republished a “30-second personal brand inventory.” Not everyone’s personal brand is going to mesh with a desk job…