Why To Make Things

A collection for Paul Kirwin based on this prompt: “I’m a retired custom woodworker. I find community in the writings of others that have found satisfaction and comfort and value in the crafting of things. I’m not looking for ‘How-To Make Things’ books but more like ‘Why To Make Things’ books”

Alex Dobrenko

I think we adults have a similar innate drive to create, and that drive can be supported or stifled by the environment. And, I think that instead of creating environments where we are creative by default , we live in a world where we are distracted by default .

Casey Rosengren • Creative by Default

The Creative Act: A Way of Being

Rick Rubin • 87 highlights

amazon.com

Cover of The Creative Act: A Way of Being

Extending the metaphor of carpentry, it’s first necessary to be able to saw wood neatly and to drive nails. Later you can bevel the edges or add elegant finials, if that’s your taste. But you can never forget that you are practicing a craft that’s based on certain principles.

William Zinsser • On Writing Well, 30th Anniversary Edition: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction

Blending these two notions, carpentry entails making things that explain how things make their world.

Ian Bogost • Alien Phenomenology, or What It's Like to Be a Thing (Posthumanities)

Mastery

Robert Greene

amazon.com

Lego Mindset vs. Woodworking Mindset

Scott Stevenson blog.scottstevenson.net

The desire to create for its own sake is what it means to be human.

Thomas Bevan • Our Tools and Us

A chief gladness of gardening comes from its dual nature, from how it salves our longing for making order out of chaos but also frustrates it. There is elemental satisfaction in the reminder that we can never fully control nature — that, in fact, any sense of control is a childish fantasy, for we ourselves are children of nature, made by the... See more