Quote

[snousle]

"The satisfactions of manifesting oneself concretely in the world through manual competence have been known to make a man quiet and easy. They seem to relieve him of the felt need to offer chattering interpretations of himself to vindicate his worth. He can simply point: the building stands, the car now runs, the lights are on. Boasting is what a boy does, who has no real effect in the world. But craftsmanship must reckon with the infallible judgment of reality, where one’s failures or shortcomings cannot be interpreted away."

http://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/shop-class-as-soulcraft

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[come-to-think.livejournal.com]

A satire on this subject, all the more charming for being dated, is _Player Piano_ by Kurt Vonnegut.

One might also recall:

"...A man in business is not a mere machine for making money. The same vanities that are in all of us are in him; he likes to do his job a bit better than the next fellow; he likes to be admired, and maybe envied. In other words, he has pride of workmanship. It pleases him to hear people say that what he sells is good, and to see them part with their money willingly and come back for more. The profits, true enough, caress him, but so do the friendly feelings and the general respect. Good will is not only an asset on his books; it is also something that tickles his midriff.

"This pride of workmanship is in all men above the rank of earthworms. It is, beyond even the desire for gain, the thing that makes men labor in the heat of the day.... The man who has done a good job, and knows it, is a man who comes as near to happiness as anyone ever gets on this lugubrious ball. A cataract of molasses runs down his back; his nostrils are enchanted by the sniff of genuine pre-Prohibition stuff; a sweet singing, as of angels well grounded in solfeggio, is in his ears."

--- H. L. Mencken, "On Babbitts" (1925)