In efforts to save or spend, outside of life’s various standard needs - the bills, food, cleaning products, kleenex, other basic necessities. How does one choose to spend their money? A product of their time. Outside of raising children or perhaps philanthropic efforts to help those beyond one’s own immediate family, we would say one of the best uses of it would be on the tools of our trades. Meaning the tools you use to make something. To create and not just consume.
During the renaissance it was the acquisition of chizzles for sculpture or brushes for paintings. Back then, just acquiring the paint pigments in themselves was a massive task. As they had to be made by hand, not bought from an art supply store, as those had yet to exist, but instead made from scratch, by combining oils with various minerals. Paintbrushes made from the hair of animals. Often being from difficult to reach locations. If those things could not have been created or later manufactured for purchase, we would not have been left with such timeless masterpieces which were made from such tools in hands.
The printer press and the typewriter were inventions which greatly increased productivity at the time. Democratizing both reading and then writing. Very much worth their acquisition. Much like the modern day computer, they may have been tools which had expensive prices to enter into, but had incredible longevity in terms of their usage.
There’s a quote in the startup world that “you can mine for gold or you can sell pickaxes.” This is a reference to the California Gold Rush of the late 1800’s where some of the most successful business people such as Samuel Brannan or Levi Strauss didn’t mine for gold themselves but instead sold tools to miners – wheelbarrows, tents, pickaxes, etc. Mining for gold was the more glamorous path but actually turned out, in aggregate, to be a worse return on capital and labor than selling supplies. Most supply sellers know this, so go after the ones which make a quality product. Not just a mass produced one that's the cheap flavor of the time.
A classic example would be the barn woodsmith workshop or much more common, garage workbench. Usually the staple of male masculinity, for saw dust can be referred to as “man glitter”. There’s another saying which goes something like “A town is still local and quaint if it still has a local hardware store on its main drag.” Selling good old hand made building tools instead of mass produced ones now at the huge chain store. For when you purchase a hammer, which has about 147 uses, if you don't live out of a hotel but instead in one place, it’s not going to become unnecessary. The classic old tool workbench is a thing of longevity. And if you buy good tools, and take good care of them, they can build you a lifetime worth of quality craftsmanship or artistry.
Or even longer. Sometimes one may even use inherited tools from another era, which can still be really good, or vastly superior or un-replaceable. We know someone who has and uses on a near weekly basis in their culinary pursuits these phenomenally well made cast iron skillets which they inherited from their grandmother.
Church organs are a relic from the old world - and a hyper specialized one at that. Which contain so much analogue complexity that those who used to know how to build them have mostly long passed. The maintenance of the hundred if not multiple hundred year old instruments, which were built to last, is difficult. For if one forgets how something was made, they will also forget how it is repaired.
Our personal philosophy with tools of our trades have been similar. To buy the good stuff - much less often. Since in this cycle of humanity, external hardware technologies are firing on all cylinders, we admit that our main consumerist research and purchase guilt is camera equipment. Quite regularly paying attention to when new things are released and being somewhat constantly interested in the latest details and specs. Which have little to no difference in the creation of the craft than the previous half dozen versions. Yet in this regard, being quite conservative to only acquire something new if it helps the quality of our outputs, streamline our artists' processes, or allow some sort of dynamic to exist which could not have happened with prior iterations.
Recent examples of this are a specific type of computer mouse that is more ergonomic, preventing wrist strain, and a mechanical keyboard. A modern keyboard technology very popular in Asia which are very much a throwback to the old school style late 70’s / early 80’s keyboards with louder clickety clack keys. Yet, these new versions are heavily customizable but most importantly wonderful for coders or writers with tactile feedback on the fingers.
A filmmaking acquaintance of ours named Osman is from Ukraine. He is an amazing cottage industry crafter who makes some of the best custom camera straps on the internet. He has a small store on a site which hosts small business sellers which is his primary income. After having been able to leave his home country in a little European car, full to the brim with mostly stuff for his child, the only thing he now has for himself short of his clothes are his tools for his craftsmanship - wherein he can set up a mobile workstation anywhere. Be that it a hostel, hotel room, or micro apartment. In his current standings he must do what he can to continue having an income stream for his specialized trade.
Over the years, we have learned to advise anyone whatever their tool - table saw, chef's knife, drafting table, typewriter, drum set, pottery kiln, microphone, weedwacker, camera, pencil, oven, ballet slipper, compass or square, harp, synthesizer, automobile, laptop, tracktor, DJ deck, …whatever your crafts, dipping your toes into the trade vicariously through someone else already doing that craft, is a good entry vector. Much how apprenticeships have long worked through time. Then based on recommendations from those already in the trade, acquire the best tools which you can afford, which ideally means you’d only have to buy them once. Rather than buying sub-optimal and then later working up towards another tier of slightly better, followed by another tier of even better, etc.... The good stuff is almost always the most well designed, which means not only does it need less replacement, but also that it increases efficiency, saving time and thus money. For if the tool itself is a work of art, that only further motivates and inspires the creator to make further works of art with that tool.
To become more of a master, of whatever trade, part of that involves using less things but better things. For mindfulness and minimalism should entail only the essential acquisition of tools that you can use to make work, fulfill passions and get those things accomplished. Purchasing less often to consume less and create more - An inherent preventative against gear acquisition syndrome. The excessive and over acquisition of gear which frankly, is in itself a waste of time, with more time spent researching the tool than using it. The modern day tech review video is doing this - simply being only a more modern version of talking about Michelangelo’s brushes he used to create the art on the ceiling of Sistine Chapel instead of talking about the development, skills, or craft of the artist that used those paintbrushes. Michelangelo himself has stood the test of time because he did not endlessly research and talk about his tools, but instead used those quality tools to a masterful ext
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