Comments on: DIY Anonymous http://www.arc-zone.com/blog/carmenelectrode/2010/02/08/diy-anonymous/ because women welders rock! Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:49:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Andy from Workshopshed http://www.arc-zone.com/blog/carmenelectrode/2010/02/08/diy-anonymous/comment-page-1/#comment-12205 Andy from Workshopshed Wed, 10 Feb 2010 13:34:55 +0000 http://www.carmenelectrode.com/?p=1536#comment-12205 Creating a kit for someone else to make is a lot harder than just building the item in the first place. It's actually quite difficult to write good instructions for something you know how to do well as you have to guess what the builder does not know. Perhaps the spirit is dwindling because the kits are of poor quality in terms of ease of build? Your post reminded me of a comment early last year where Lisa Anne Auerbach raised the idea of "Don't do it yourself". http://www.workshopshed.com/2009/03/ddiy-dont-do-it-yourself.html Creating a kit for someone else to make is a lot harder than just building the item in the first place. It’s actually quite difficult to write good instructions for something you know how to do well as you have to guess what the builder does not know. Perhaps the spirit is dwindling because the kits are of poor quality in terms of ease of build?

Your post reminded me of a comment early last year where Lisa Anne Auerbach raised the idea of “Don’t do it yourself”.

http://www.workshopshed.com/2009/03/ddiy-dont-do-it-yourself.html

]]> By: Ethan http://www.arc-zone.com/blog/carmenelectrode/2010/02/08/diy-anonymous/comment-page-1/#comment-12160 Ethan Mon, 08 Feb 2010 21:44:59 +0000 http://www.carmenelectrode.com/?p=1536#comment-12160 Hey Carmen, I love your blog and I read it all the time. Maybe this trend isn't an entirely bad thing. For every Joe Non-Welder out there, it means more opportunities in the skilled trades. If nobody works on their own plumbing, plumbers can laugh all the way to the bank. I agree there's a deeper societal issue, but there is a silver lining for handy people. And precisely because these DIY skills are no longer as common as they once were, they're now nerdy-cool in a big, big way. There's a growing, crafty counter-culture pushing back against the mainstream trend. Learning to weld is cool again, in some circles. For proof, check out this post where I compiled a few examples: http://bikebuilding.blogspot.com/2008/09/consumers-are-consuming-raw-materials.html See also this month's WIRED cover story, on how "atoms are the new bits": http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/01/ff_newrevolution WIRED predicts we'll continue to see the democratization of manufacturing, following in the footsteps of personal computers and desktop printing. The news may not be all good, but there's a rowdy bunch of us fighting back. Hey Carmen, I love your blog and I read it all the time.

Maybe this trend isn’t an entirely bad thing.
For every Joe Non-Welder out there, it means more opportunities in the skilled trades. If nobody works on their own plumbing, plumbers can laugh all the way to the bank. I agree there’s a deeper societal issue, but there is a silver lining for handy people.

And precisely because these DIY skills are no longer as common as they once were, they’re now nerdy-cool in a big, big way. There’s a growing, crafty counter-culture pushing back against the mainstream trend. Learning to weld is cool again, in some circles. For proof, check out this post where I compiled a few examples: http://bikebuilding.blogspot.com/2008/09/consumers-are-consuming-raw-materials.html

See also this month’s WIRED cover story, on how “atoms are the new bits”: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/01/ff_newrevolution
WIRED predicts we’ll continue to see the democratization of manufacturing, following in the footsteps of personal computers and desktop printing.

The news may not be all good, but there’s a rowdy bunch of us fighting back.

]]>