John,  I agree.  I never listen to the radio when I work and the work I do
is not that demanding of my attention, I just don't like the distraction.
Ruth



At 11:19 AM -0400 10/19/02, John Leeke wrote:
>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
>
>--
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--
Ruth Barton
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Westminster, VT

--
To terminate puerile preservation prattling among pals and the
uncoffee-ed, or to change your settings, go to:
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