[JoeAltmaier]

I'm wondering if they are obsolete, like quill pens and slide rules. Who has a wood shop? What jobs are available with those skills? and so on. Its an old middle-class ideal that every kid should learn those things, plus flower arranging and calculating a bearing on your yacht.

[hobs]

This is the kind of comment I would expect on hacker news.

Who has a woodshop? Carpenters, cabinet makers, furniture makers, CNC operators, instrument makers, boat makers, the list goes on.

The basic ability to decompose and fix real world objects is quite important, and our cushioned zones of computer bliss may make us forget that we need all of those people to keep not posting on hacker news and learning how to use physical tools.

[JoeAltmaier]

Again, those are things that people with money can do. The vast mass of humanity doesn't have any access to a CNC mill, nor do they make boats in their basement (e.g.because they live in a small apartment). Its a first-world middle-class idea, was my point.

[hobs]

And its completely first world to assume that a boat maker is not a profession, but something a hobbyist would pursue.

[JoeAltmaier]

I don't understand. Nobody's talking hobbies. Its absurd to imagine the average high school student will be a boatmaker or woodsmith. One in a million get to do things like that. Might as well be learning to make buggy whips or opera glasses.

[GFK_of_xmaspast]

When was the last time you were inside a hardware store?