The Case for Working With Your Hands

New York Times by Matthew B. Crawford | May. 24, 2009 (Special Report)

The television show “Deadliest Catch” depicts commercial crab fishermen in the Bering Sea. Another, “Dirty Jobs,” shows all kinds of grueling work; one episode featured a guy who inseminates turkeys for a living. The weird fascination of these shows must lie partly in the fact that such confrontations with material reality have become exotically unfamiliar. Many of us do work that feels more surreal than real. Working in an office, you often find ... Full Story »

Posted by Leo Romero - via Umbreen Bhatti (t), Jeremy Caplan (t), mark breslauer (f)

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Subjects: U.S., Business
Topics: U.S. Economy, Labor, Jobs
Editorial Help
Posted by: Posted by Leo Romero - May 24, 2009 - 8:33 AM PDT
Reviewed by: Leo Romero (review), elo sloane (review), Chris Gauthier (review), Philippe Habib (review)
Content Type: Article
Edit Lock: This story can be edited
Edited by: Leo Romero - May 24, 2009 - 8:33 AM PDT

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Philippe Habib
4.5
 by Philippe Habib - May. 26, 2009

The author makes excellent points not only about our society's bias in favor of office work above manual work, but he eloquently makes the case for the pleasure of the manual work and makes it well enough to put to rest the idea that those who chose manual work aren't as smart as the office workers. Well worth a read.

See Full Review » (11 answers)
elo sloane
5.0
 by elo sloane - May. 24, 2009

well thought-out, well written, highly relevant and original

It is so refreshing to read an artice like this. It's worth taking the time to read the whole article. I hope it gets all the attention it deserves and starts a larger discussion. I think that the idea of spending 4 years at a liberal arts school, learning more for the sake of learning than for anything else, is a beautiful, Utopian idea...it would be wonderful if our society could support each individual ... More »

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Leo Romero
3.0
 by Leo Romero - May. 24, 2009
Leo posted this story.
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Chris Gauthier
4.4
 by Chris Gauthier - May. 25, 2009

This is exactly what I needed to read at exactly the right time. Extremely well-written, funny, poignant, and full of great lines, like, "Nothing is set in concrete the way it is when you are, for example, pouring concrete."

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