[lbo-talk] School Debate: Central Focus

[Wojtek S]

You welcome.  I am now watching the film and absolutely relate to it.
I do a lot of "manual" projects myself around the house, plumbing,
electrical, carpentry etc.  and what they say about "systemic
thinking" rings very true.  You have to figure out how what you are
doing will actually work, you cannot bullshit your way though as you
often do in academic work, and you will be utterly sorry if you try to
bullshit.  The same applies to working with existing appliances etc.
- you have to assume that people who assembled it did so for a reason
and you have to find what that reason was - you cannot simply dismiss
it as bullshit as intellectuals often do with someone else's writing.
If you want to play that game, it will cost you dearly.  That is why I
think that "manual" work offers a nice balance to academic work - it
helps maintaining sanity.

Having said that, however, I've seen enough shoddy work in the houses
in which I've lived to wonder WTF were those people thinking?  I blame
it on the "business model" - the contractors who do these jobs are
first and foremost businessmen, not craftspeople, and cutting corners
is a central part of the "business model."

Wojtek

On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 11:54 AM, Sean Andrews <cultstud76 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Woj,
>
> thanks for sharing.
>
> On Thu, Feb 16, 2012 at 09:50, Wojtek S <wsoko52 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> >From my pov, the "manual" labor can be as if not more intellectually
>> challenging than many white collar jobs.
>
> This is very nicely demonstrated and discussed in the film I linked
> before. This should take you to the part of the film:
> http://www.hulu.com/watch/326776/the-tradesmen-making-an-art-of-work?c=1613:1970
> http://www.hulu.com/watch/326776/the-tradesmen-making-an-art-of-work?c=2016:2552
>
> I think there are others, but can't go through it to find them right
> now. It's not a perfect film, but it is eye opening - or was to me -
> in its description of the cultural perception of work.
>
> S
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-- 
Wojtek
http://wsokol.blogspot.com/