Craftzine.com blog: Clive Thompson on How DIYers Just Might Revive American Innovation

Clive Thompson on How DIYers Just Might Revive American Innovation

Phil @ MAKE points us to this article by Wired Magazine's Clive Thompson:

What a mess. I'm sitting on the floor of my apartment, surrounded by electronic parts, a cigar box, a soldering gun, and stray bits of wire. I'm trying to build my own steampunk-style clock -- hacking a couple of volt meter dials to display hours and minutes. It'll look awesome when it's done.

If it ever gets done -- I keep botching the soldering. A well-soldered joint is supposed to look like a small, shiny volcano. My attempts look like mashed insects, and they crack when I try to assemble the device.

Why am I so inept? I used to do projects like this all the time when I was a kid. But in high school, I was carefully diverted from shop class when the administration decided I was college-bound. I stopped working with my hands and have barely touched a tool since.

As it turns out, this isn't a problem just for me -- it's a problem for America. We've lost our Everyman ability to build, maintain, and repair the devices we rely on every day. And that's making it harder to solve the country's nastiest problems, like oil dependence, climate change, and global competitiveness.

He cites MAKE magazine as a prime example of this movement, and I think we at CRAFT espouse this sentiment as well - Link.

Related:

CRAFT volume 1: Handmade (including the above pictured American flag by Dave Cole) - Link.

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