The vast majority of us have been told that college is still the best option to secure our share of the American Dream. Now, I have worked for three different colleges/universities, and I am close to finishing my master’s degree, so it would be hypocritical for me to bash formal education. My educational career has granted me amazing opportunities.
That being said, the idea that college is the end all be all is far too absolute. When I was working a full-time job entirely behind a computer screen and then going to class all night, I remember telling my friends, “Yes, I’m busy all the time, but I don’t feel like I’m doing anything.”
Then I found this book, which helped me identify why I was so frustrated. Its author, Matthew B. Crawford, earned a Ph.D. in political philosophy from the University of Chicago. He subsequently worked for a think tank in D.C. until he became so disenchanted with his job that he opened his own motorcycle repair shop, Shockoe Moto, in Richmond, Virginia.
The problem with (some) knowledge work
A primary issue we face is the false dichotomy labeling white-collar office jobs as intellectual and elite and blue-collar trade careers as physical, mindless, and therefore lesser. We seem to believe this partly because of what has happened to industry over the years. Henry Ford’s introduction of the assembly line in the early 20th century is praised by management professors, but for the workers who endured this shift, it was a nightmare:
“So great was labor’s distaste for the new machine system that toward the close of 1913 every time the company wanted to add 100 men to its factory personnel, it was necessary to hire 963.”
That is to say, their craftsmanship became obsolete; they were less involved in the entirety of the creative process.
Due to the technological advances of the last few decades, this shift is now taking place in the modern office, as well. Much of the work we do in the cubicle has been automated. And, due to scientific management principles, we are specializing in increasingly smaller segments of the production process. We should not, then, always claim that our positions are superior intellectually if we are simply operating our station of the white-collar assembly line.
“A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts. So, he loses touch with reality, and lives in a world of illusion.” – Alan Watts
There is also less face-to-face contact (due to Google Teams, Slack, remote work, etc.) and less interaction with the physical world. Many knowledge workers lack the feeling that they are creating and contributing. This exacerbates the feeling that we are working in a world of abstractions. We are stuck in our heads, simultaneously not using our motor skills.
A case for the trades
“Plato makes a distinction between technical skill and rhetoric on the grounds that rhetoric ‘has no account to give of the real nature of things, and so cannot tell the cause of any of them.’”
Skilled manual labor requires an inevitable reckoning with the physical world. A tradesman must face the reality of his tools and his material. There is great satisfaction in displaying technical skill. If the pipe is no longer leaking, if the building passes inspection, then it is a job well done. The tradesman’s success is tangible and identifiable.
He also must be present in the moment to bring about this success. The same cannot always be said for the knowledge worker’s efforts. I also love this passage from the book: “If you need a deck built, or your car fixed, the Chinese are of no help. Because they are in China. And in fact there are chronic labor shortages in both construction and auto repair.” The trades are an extremely secure career choice because they are not easily outsourced, unlike many white-collar jobs, and because they require a concrete set of skills.
Do something with your hands
“Depleted from his workweek in the corporate world, the office worker repaired to his basement workshop to putter about and tinker, refreshing himself for the following week.”
I have had office jobs that were extremely fulfilling and others that have made me want to walk out at lunch and join the carpenters union (I have almost zero experience with tools). There is no right or wrong answer here. A solid career is a solid career, whether in the corporate world or in the trades.
If you do find yourself spending several hours behind a computer screen, however, it’s important to have hobbies that keep you connected to the physical world. Take a walk in nature. Learn an instrument. Start a blog. Go to the gym. Take a woodworking class. “If thinking is bound up with action, then the task of getting an adequate grasp on the world, intellectually, depends on our doing stuff in it.” Don’t live your life in theory. Make some time to interact with reality.