Carpenters learn to be patient and to plan
Summary
- Because a cut in wood is permanent, carpenters tend to be deliberate and patient
Details
- Measure twice, cut once
- Make a habit of walking through your work mentally before embarking on a job
References
Quotes
There being no “Undo Sawing” command, the carpenter who makes a mistake is apt to call, in jest, for the “wood stretcher”—a tool that of course doesn’t exist. The irreversibility of an action taken in wood is how the carpenter comes by his patience and deliberation, his habit of pausing to mentally walk through all the consequences of any action—to consider fully the implications for, say, the trimming of a doorjamb next month of a cut made in a rafter today. These were alien habits of mind, but ones I’d resolved to learn. So I followed Joe out the door, trudging back into the snow to double-check our measurements.