Craftsmanship – The Alternative to the Four Hour Work Week Mindset (2018)
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Re: Craftsmanship – The Alternative to the Four Hour Work Week Mindset (2018)
#2I'm not a great developer by today's measurements. I struggled throughout my degree and the first 4 years of my career. Especially, when it came to computer networking and algorithms. 7 years into this profession and few projects high-profile projects later, I feel like I'm just getting my legs going. What keeps me going is adopting the mindset that
software development is a lifelong craft from posts like this and HN community.
Re: Craftsmanship – The Alternative to the Four Hour Work Week Mindset (2018)
#3Discussed at the time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16248810
Re: Craftsmanship – The Alternative to the Four Hour Work Week Mindset (2018)
#4becoming a craftsman and getting to the 99th percentile has major trade offs. In order to survive as a business you need to create value and capture the market faster than your competition can. To do that you need to do more than your craft.
You have to operate a business or you’ll get swallowed up by competition who doesn’t follow your mantra.
I also believe the cheapification of so much of society and the shallowness of so many companies means that people will be craving high quality, authentically produced goods and services.
In the long run quality may win out, but that’s if your competition doesn’t put you out of business before.
Re: Craftsmanship – The Alternative to the Four Hour Work Week Mindset (2018)
#5Appreciate the content, but not sure that "craftsmanship" is what is needed, it's a "generalist" approach rather than "specialist" that entrepreneurs need.
Craftsmanship is about a dedication to a single activity, so a master cabinet maker, or a Wall St quant, or a "rock star" programmer (titles may vary).
Re: Craftsmanship – The Alternative to the Four Hour Work Week Mindset (2018)
#6Appreciate the content, but not sure that "craftsmanship" is what is needed, it's a "generalist" approach rather than "specialist" that entrepreneurs need. Craftsmanship is about a dedication to a single activity, so a master cabinet maker, or a Wall St quant, or a "rock star" programmer (titles may vary).
Maybe we could consider Craftsmanship in this sense to be the dedication to building a good business. Ideally, the CEO/Founder wouldn't be the most skilled artisan in any one thing in their company, but would be an artisan of integration of available parts into a viable business strategy. To borrow from your cabinet maker example, the cabinet craftsman isn't necessarily great at making high quality lumber, or fasteners. But trains themselves to understand the parts available and integrate that through skilled labor into a fine cabinet. In some sense, all craftsmanship is skilled integration.
Re: Craftsmanship – The Alternative to the Four Hour Work Week Mindset (2018)
#7I guess if we're going to discuss this article again, I should get to say my piece about it again:
> To lounge on a beach or travel the world and not actively engage in building your arsenal of expertise is professional malpractice.
I've seen this thought expressed before in writing about Startups. If you're not burning your life down 24/7 in the struggle to make it Big, you're doing it wrong.
But that's silly.
The entire goal of building a business, in my mind, is to get the point where you can lounge on a beach or travel the world and not need to actively engage in anything except the pursuit of happiness.
I personally averaged out at a little less than four hours of work per week in 2017, running the sort of low maintenance, feature complete, Software-as-a-Service business that the author spends a paragraph explaining is not in fact a "serious company".
But look at the product and you'll see craftsmanship. Ten years of work, in fact as of roughly today. But never at the author's pace. Always at mine. Those two things are not mutually exclusive.
That's the great thing about building a business. You can do it any way you like.
Re: Craftsmanship – The Alternative to the Four Hour Work Week Mindset (2018)
#8I'm not a great developer by today's measurements. I struggled throughout my degree and the first 4 years of my career. Especially, when it came to computer networking and algorithms. 7 years into this profession and few projects high-profile projects later, I feel like I'm just getting my legs going. What keeps me going is adopting the mindset that software development is a lifelong craft from posts like this and HN…
The software profession has been corrupted and utterly misdirected by the entire management industry that has been built around it -- it sounds like you've got the beginnings of enlightenment brewing inside of you and I invite you to use your critical reasoning outside of the facts of your `craftmanship` and see how the algorithms and concepts of computer science apply directly to one's pursuit of ultimate understanding and personhood
Look to the history of computer science and the greats that brought us to where we are now, like Alan Turing and ask yourself if this is the future they had envisioned for our calling?
Re: Craftsmanship – The Alternative to the Four Hour Work Week Mindset (2018)
#9I guess if we're going to discuss this article again, I should get to say my piece about it again: > To lounge on a beach or travel the world and not actively engage in building your arsenal of expertise is professional malpractice. I've seen this thought expressed before in writing about Startups. If you're not burning your life down 24/7 in the struggle to make it Big, you're doing it wrong. But that's silly. The e…
I think you're missing the point of craftsmanship as a general value. It is not about extracting and then spending resources. It's about dedicating your time, perhaps even your life, to mastering a skill. Traditional Japanese culture understood this and that's why you still get people like Jiro.[1] In the West, the only remaining traditional craftsmen that I can think of offhand are the bespoke tailors in Savile Row and their counterparts in France and Italy.
In the craftsmanship model, the pursuit of happiness is the pursuit of purpose and mastery, not simply the pursuit of sensory pleasures and relaxation.
Re: Craftsmanship – The Alternative to the Four Hour Work Week Mindset (2018)
#10I guess if we're going to discuss this article again, I should get to say my piece about it again: > To lounge on a beach or travel the world and not actively engage in building your arsenal of expertise is professional malpractice. I've seen this thought expressed before in writing about Startups. If you're not burning your life down 24/7 in the struggle to make it Big, you're doing it wrong. But that's silly. The e…
My pursuit of happiness consists of meaningful work. My startups reflect that. If I ended up on a beach long term, I am sure I would be starting a new business right there, removing pollution or whatever.