September 2, 2011
carpentrix: If I learned anything in college it was how to bullshit. It was how to fake my way through sounding like I knew something. I got really good at it. And it often turned out the thicker the bullshit, the better the grade. In carpentry, if you bullshit, the drawer won’t close, the threshold will squeak, the tiles will crack, you’ll trip on the stairs, and the walls will fall down. Corners can be cut, no question, but when you fake it, you know. Your boss knows. Your client knows. You are answerable, in a direct and tangible way, for your work. There’s a subjectivity to a grade (when we’re talking American Lit as opposed to Principles of Engineering). Carpentry has objective results. The floor doesn’t cave in when you walk on it, for example. The books don’t tumble off the shelf. I wrote about the ways college did — and did not — prepare me for carpentry work. You can read the piece here.

carpentrix:

If I learned anything in college it was how to bullshit. It was how to fake my way through sounding like I knew something. I got really good at it. And it often turned out the thicker the bullshit, the better the grade. In carpentry, if you bullshit, the drawer won’t close, the threshold will squeak, the tiles will crack, you’ll trip on the stairs, and the walls will fall down. Corners can be cut, no question, but when you fake it, you know. Your boss knows. Your client knows. You are answerable, in a direct and tangible way, for your work. There’s a subjectivity to a grade (when we’re talking American Lit as opposed to Principles of Engineering). Carpentry has objective results. The floor doesn’t cave in when you walk on it, for example. The books don’t tumble off the shelf.

I wrote about the ways college did — and did not — prepare me for carpentry work. You can read the piece here.

9:46am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZDtOFy92Ttt4
(Notes: 63)
  
Filed under: carpentry college education grind and glory 
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  3. seasonsabyss reblogged this from carpentrix and added:
    a big peice of wood and I’m...screwing. But seriously, carpentry is possibly
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  7. bmichael said: You’re an author!
  8. rachelfershleiser reblogged this from bmichael and added:
    I went to Penn and have no marketable skill and do you wanna fight?
  9. bmichael reblogged this from mcnallyjackson and added:
    I’ve somehow lost track of one of those Tumblr blogs I had followed but stopped following for nebulous/no reasons. And...
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  12. This was featured in #Prose
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    Y’all are following carpentrix right?
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