In this day and age intellectual property rules but there’s something to be said about working with your hands.
Going to university, getting a degree and landing that sweet desk job is the aspiration of many. There’s nothing wrong with that because often the most value one can add is behind a computer, using our intellect, communicating and collaborating.
By the same token though physically building something, getting dirt under your nails, watching something take shape piece by piece is adding a different kind of value. That value is about appreciating the fact that the computers we use, the chairs we sit on, the desks upon which we perch, the bikes we ride, the cars we drive, the phones we use…everything is either made or assembled by hand.
We have outsourced almost all external costs. Everyone along the production and distribution channels outsource these external costs in an attempt to keep the price of their final product or service as low as possible. What we must realise is that external costs don’t just disappear, they’re shifted from one part of the world to another. Basically what I’m saying is that the price of the stuff we buy does not reflect their true value. That’s because the hands that made or assembled our stuff aren’t valued the way they should be nor are the real costs to life and our planet appreciated.
The only we can start to empathise and appreciate real value is to build something not by typing but by using our hands for the purpose for which they were designed and have evolved.