Leland writes:
> The great majority of craftsman I admire,
> rarely talk while they work.  (And what's with the youngest, greenest
> worker getting to choose the radio station?)

I agree with you about talking. And what's with tradespeople listening to
the radio at all? As a tradesperson I find that a radio on the worksite
makes my work more difficult. I have to listen to my work to do my best. The
creak of the mortise & tenon joint down the hall tells me when to stop
cranking the jack to keep the plaster from cracking. The subtle
"sssssssssnick, ssssssssssnick" of my plane along the edge of the board
tells me if I'm flat across the bevel like I want to be, or rounding over
like I don't. The quiet "chriiieeeetchit" of the carving chisel resonating
on the redwood tells me the rim of the Ionic volute is about to snap off so
I swing around a little more to keep it intact. Hearing the slight "tink" of
a scafold pin slipping out once gave me the moment's notice I needed to step
over to a safe perch on the ladder as the planks dropped out from beneath
me. The results of my work would suffer without these audial clues.

A worker with the boombox blaring rap, or even quite classical, may be able
to get some good work done, but after working with hundreds of tradespeople
across the country I know that better work can be done without it. It means
that some part of their mind is not on their work. I find that those who
work at the crafts or artisanry level listen to the radio and talk less than
laborers or tradespeople. The subtlies of the work demand it. As a
consultant who often is selecting these people for projects I sometimes use
listening and talking habits as an indicator of their commitment to their
work and might look closer at the quality of their work, the noisier it is.

John Leeke

--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
<http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/bullamanka-pinheads.html>