I like this short post from Cal Newport’s blog on the pleasures of manual or embodied work. The post is relevant to my book in that explores the nature of practical skills (I write extensively about the acquisition of such skills in the chapter on Observation) and the satisfactions of them. All of which is in strong contrast to the current, digital-only, disembodied world of work:
“For most “non-essential” workers, the past two months have delivered a professional experience that’s exactly the opposite of Fred Hauser running a metal lathe in his California garage. Instead of manifesting ourselves concretely in the world, we endlessly pass digital messages back and forth, taking breaks only to talk to each other about these messages over cramped video conference screens.”