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

Avoiding Kits | andrewlb.com blog

andrewlb.com

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

Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life

Bill Burnett • 9 highlights

amazon.com

Cover of Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life

Creative endeavors are inspiring because the scope of the problem often feels bigger than your capacity to solve it. But because you find that problem so worthwhile, you’re willing to put in the effort required to provide the best solution possible. Through this process, you become a more capable person, which allows you to address more worthwhile... See more

Lawrence Yeo • The Arc of the Practical Creator

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)

Making nice things is difficult and time-consuming.

If we want people to make nice things for us, we have to pay for their rent and grocery bills and raw materials

It is as if there were a natural law which ordained that to achieve this end, to refine the curve of a piece of furniture, or a ship’s keel, or the fuselage of an airplane, until gradually it partakes of the elementary purity of the curve of the human breast or shoulder, there must be experimentation of several generations of craftsmen.

Naomi Klein • Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman--Including 10 More Years of Business Unusual

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 .

Avoiding Kits | andrewlb.com blog

Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life

Lawrence Yeo • The Arc of the Practical Creator

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

Naomi Klein • Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman--Including 10 More Years of Business Unusual

Casey Rosengren • Creative by Default