Oh, what to do?

When artificial intelligence takes your job away, remember that there's a real life that surrounds you... not a fake or artificial one, and that by watching closely to the world at hand, there are things to do that involve growth. Plant a garden, cook a meal, tend a sick child, be here now.

If the economy crumbles, remember that the statistical world in which we live and measure our worth is not the real world of immediacy... things need to be attended to in the here and now, that give joy. Caring for each other does not crash. Before there was an economy there were people getting along with each other.

Develop a craft. It need not be woodworking. Any craft will offer the chance of excellence and responsiveness to local concerns of great interest.

Make, fix and create...

Box Sale to celebrate 50 years

https://dougstowe.etsy.com?coupon=SAVE25FOR50TH

In celebration of my 50 years pf woodworking, I've put my work for sale in Etsy available with a 25% discount. Check it out. You may find things that interest you. You will need to use the code at checkout for the discount to apply. SAVE25FOR50TH

Craftspersons have been able to be creative because you make it so.

I am involved as a participant in a class action lawsuit against Anthropic in which they used the text and photos in 3 of my books for machine training in violation of my copyrights. As a how-to writer, my area is the truth, for without the truth, my projects are not replicable by readers. As a two time Golden Hammer Award winner from the National Association of Home and Workshop and having spent two terms as president of the organization, I am particularly concerned with the publishing of testable truth. —Truth tested and assured in your own hands.

Why the concern with artificial intelligence when you can have the real smarts in your own hands?

Popular Woodworking has an article of mine in the current issue. Making a "Trinket Box". Of course the article tells how to make it.

Make, fix and create...

Modified finger joint.

Modified finger joint. You'll notice that the back edge of the box is thicker wood which will allow for expanding type barrel type hinges to be used. To accomplish this I make a small rabbet cut on each end of the back parts after the fingers are formed. Seven boxes are being made. After routing for the bottoms to fit the boxes will be assembled and lids will be made. The fronts and sides are uniform thickness.

Make, fix and create. You'll not regret it.

Do art when AI takes your job

 A program in Ireland can help us to understand what happens when Artificial Intelligence takes our jobs and leaves us little to hope. It paid 200 artists a basic income to do their work, relieving them of insecurity. With nationalized healthcare for all, and the guaranteed income they had little to worry about but their own creativity. Paid 325 Euros a week, the guaranteed income for artists program proved itself a resounding economic success, paying back into the economy far more than what was invested in it.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-irelands-basic-artist-income-experiment-tells-us-doug-mclennan-wq7xc/?trackingId=StTIcoXmSnOG5AyQRT2myA%3D%3D

"Ireland demonstrated something more about a ground bass: economic insecurity doesn't just force workers out, it diminishes the overall creative economy. That matters enormously right now, because we are entering a period when a lot of people across a lot of industries are about to lose their job security."

What to do when Artificial Intelligence takes your job? Create! Make beautiful and useful things.

Make, fix and create...

winter woods

This box is part of a collection that celebrates the tactile and visual experience of a walk in the woods, as the hands reach out to touch the supple, slender twigs of winter. The woods are white oak and walnut. The reeds bound in walnut and brass represent those twigs.

The value of the student's work

This afternoon I have a zoom call with fellows from the Teaching with Small Wooden Boats Alliance. It will be a question and reflection concerning who is to teach and to whom. I hope it is a useful discussion, driven in large part by the questions fellows have.

In the meantime I have a second coat of finish to apply to boxes and an additional ten made that require inlaid lids. Years ago I visualized my last years being spent in making small wooden boxes. Here I am.

Leave a legacy if you can. Remember what Otto Salomon had suggested. The value of the carpenters' work is present in the things they've crafted. The value of the student's work is in the student. I'll try for both.

Make, fix and create...