In praise of pounding nails

Matthew Crawford writes,

While manufacturing jobs have certainly left our shores to a disturbing degree, the manual trades have not. If you need a deck built, or your car fixed, the Chinese are of no help. Because they are in China.

He goes on to note how shop class is quickly becoming a thing of the past. All the rage today, a la Thomas Friedman, is to teach kids how to become "knowledge workers." Except, as pointed out in The Millionare Nextdoor, the typical millionare is the guy driving a pickup with his own business. Maybe business schools should take note.

So what advice should one give to a young person? By all means, go to college. In fact, approach college in the spirit of craftsmanship, going deep into liberal arts and sciences. In the summers, learn a manual trade. You’re likely to be less damaged, and quite possibly better paid, as an independent tradesman than as a cubicle-dwelling tender of information systems. To heed such advice would require a certain contrarian streak, as it entails rejecting a life course mapped out by others as obligatory and inevitable.

read the whole thing and maybe change majors.