Re: Creating digitally versus creating manually

This is a response to Bearly a diary's post on digital and manual creation.

I actually have a very similar story to Cris, except that it was less prominent in my life compared to him. My grandad is very good at manual things and building, and when he worked spent his time in the construction industry. Even today he's always looking for little projects to do to build things. For instance, he built the table that we eat on whenever we go round theirs to eat, he built the swing we sit on outside, the cover that goes over the swing, the shed that stores the table when it's not in use, so on and so on.

I never learnt it from him, and of course it's not his responsibility to teach his grandson anything. We did built a bookshelf in my room together, but as I didn't really have the knowhow of how to do it, he ended up buying the wood and I just sort of followed instructions. It was good, but I'm not sure I really learnt much out of it.

I'd like to be more skilled in the physical things, plumbing, or woodworking, etc., except for a lack of time (that isn't occupied by other interests), and the fact I'd be starting from absolutely nothing. And honestly, I don't think I'm interested enough to actually do it.

I ended up getting a personal computer around my teenage years, and used it for programming and the like. In fact, that was my major interest in school, and I suppose for work I do something related (MI, so I get to use SQL mainly). However I also never had the resolve to follow through on projects, and so I never finished anything of any significance as a teenager, and then didn't go to uni either.

Creating digitally

I don't create digitally, I don't think. The blog I have is a hobby, and is very much a one way street. I don't engage massively with the social element of blogging (which I think is a mistake I am making) and tend to just write posts and upload them to the website and not look at them anymore. Occasionally I'll receive e-mails from people, but not massively often. I'm not sure how many, if any, people read my blog. This blog is nothing more than an output.

I don't think I'm interested in digital content creation or anything like that. It's a wildly saturated field, and anyways, I don't think consuming content is particularly healthy. If I were to produce it, and try to monetise it (invariably through advertising), wouldn't I be like the food company producing UPF and junk food just because it is what turns a profit?

The downside of creating digitally as I do, is that because I don't seek out a readership (through sensationalism or clickbait or algorithms or whatever other means), nobody really reads my blog, and because I don't seek out to turn a profit, it's technically just a liability, albeit not a massive one, and not a liability I care about (I spent significantly more per year on alcohol than I do on all my server and hosting costs, for instance, and I'm not a massive drinker: the cost of the website really isn't a big issue).

Creating manually

I think the thing with creating manually is it requires a force of effort, or really just exercise (even something like cooking is a decent bit of exercise) and so requires overcoming that initial inertia to actually get the thing done. At the end of it, you have a physical result you can look at, and know that you exerted yourself to produce it.

Over time as well, the physical exercise leads to better general health, and can better link in to other real benefits. If you write letters or bake cakes, you can give them out to friends and have a social benefit too.

I do think it's generally better to create manually. At the very least, but creating manually, you have better fulfilment knowing you are generating value, instead of just circulating value. It's far more edifying, I think.

Thoughts on Cris' position

The author of the article I'm responding to does clearly work with his hands, as he is a stay-at-home husband. So he already have a job where he creates manually, and yet he's still dissatisfied.

I think his main issue is not that he has a non-manual job, but rather that he doesn't feel he's contributing. Speculating here, but it seems like probably he's thinking that he isn't doing enough for his wife, and not "earning his keep", so to speak. He may be generating value by keeping his wife (and adorably cute cat) well fed and the house clean, but still it's not enough.

I don't think that's to do with the means of producing value, but rather just a more general insecurity: the fear of not being enough. The fear that he is perhaps a liability on his wife, as she is earning the income. And yet of course it's no more burdensome an arrangement that a usual breadwinner husband-housewife combination. The housewife produces a lot of value for the husband, and in the exact same way a househusband produces a lot of value for the wife. Is it the standard societal pressure that a man should be earning that causes the insecurity?

And as for producing, I don't think you need to produce much of any value to be doing good things. For instance, my mum is not a professional artist but she has done pottery as a hobby and made a little hedgehog for her stepdad, and made a little painting of flowers for her mum. Neither as well made as the things you would see in an exhibition, but they are meaningful, and well appreciated, and valueable. When I was doing the allotment more regularly, I would deliver fresh radishes over to one of my dad's friends, or leeks, tomatoes, plums, whatever I had, to people. Again I'm not very skilled at gardening, but there's good in value in sharing what I had. And now I've got the mandolin, and I think there's a good of value in playing the concerts with the groups I'm in and helping provide a pleasant bit of music to people, even if I'm far from a good musician.

So maybe it's best to just start as a hobby (and be no good at it), and then give out to people you care about (whilst still not being very good at it), and then maybe you can expand it to a business or something like that down the line. Like with the pastry shop idea, you could just start by maybe just making some homemade croissants or pies or something for your wife, and then keep on making them, and where you have spares give them out to friends or get your wife to bring them into the office. Then over time you'll build up the skill and can maybe start selling them!

But I think the focus on having everything be a business is misplaced. It's putting too much value on money. If you have the financial means covered (as a couple or individually) and are providing value in the work you do, I don't think there's much cause for concern. Beyond that point maybe it's just the human condition of always being unhappy.