Autodidact: (noun) A self-taught person.
I intend to “teach myself” some simple carpentry. (Actually, I’ve been at it for a month already.) I know some things but there’s a lot of shit I don’t know. I don’t even know what I don’t know. Being charitable to myself, such honesty would at least make Socrates smile.
The thing is, I’ve got the basic “idea” of some things but I’m not even remotely experienced. Also, I’ve found I’m barking up a different tree than any local carpenters. What we call “a carpenter” in 2025 is really more of a “house builder” or “general contractor”. The guy who puts in new windows, fixes your siding, does the roof, or builds an addition is awesome but he’s not working just with wood. He works a lot more with a zillion flavors of industrial products; sheets of plywood subflooring, Tyvek vapor barriers, fiberglass insulation, asphalt shingles, aluminum flashing, vinyl siding, etc… A modern house is only partly wood. It’s mostly a dozen layers of manufactured materials. Wood studs and rafters and joists only go where industrial processes haven’t yet replaced them.
I’m not discounting their excellent knowledge. If I had that knowledge my house wouldn’t be such a dump. But life is hard enough and I don’t need to pursue another job. I’d like to be a guy who can make wooden objects fully (mostly) out of wood, because he wants to. Dovetails and miter joints are more my style. This is the domain of fine woodcrafters and hobbyists. That’s the shit I like.
For a few glorious months many years ago I made a tiny, ugly sailboat. I saw the wonder and beauty of it all! It was fun and I learned so much stuff. My boat came out very nice and sails like a boss. (Note: the boat has lots of “artificial materials” like epoxy, plywood, and fiberglass, but it somehow retained that feeling of “craft”.) Part of the joy is probably that it’s not tied to the endless chore that I call a house. When I’m doing a project and start dicking around with Tyvek and silicone sealant, the magic is gone. It’s just work. My boat was never work.
Lately, I don’t have the health to go camping or hunting (or even sail my boat). But I have a sweet antique woodstove (Betsy) in a crude but useable “shop”. I decided to hang out near Betsy. I want to recapture the magic I felt when making the boat.
I feel like I can figure out some of it by just “practicing”.
[Warning: rant!] Nobody in 2025 acts like they can “learn” on their own. Nor do they use words like “autodidact”. That’s top level, weapons grade, bullshit!
Aversion to “self taught” is not inherent in the human soul, it’s beaten into us. Innocent children are sentenced to 12 years of mind-bendingly dull public school manipulation. Many follow it with $100 grand in college loan debt. Most would-be learners emerge credentialed and schooled but also clueless, indoctrinated, weak, incurious, and mentally damaged.
We’re so fuckin’ brainwashed about credentials we confuse “authority” with “capability”. That’s how you get stupid shit like Fauchi saying “I am the science”. That’s how you get people mocking Elon Musk when one experimental launch goes bad after several hundred perfect launches. “Appeal to authority” has been shoved so deeply up our ass that most of us think a dipshit in a labcoat is wiser than an honest man sketching details on a post-it note taped to his truck bed.
Our society is intellectually constipated because we substitute social status for ability.[/Rant]
I’m not saying traditional school/college is completely useless but it’s close. How much do you use the “knowledge” you got from school/college? The only thing a credential means is you’re “schooled” not “skilled”. My boat, built by me, floats and sails; no amount of zoom meetings, consensus building, regulations, or team discussion will ever change the verdict rendered by wind and water.
Whew… I guess I’ve got issues to unpack. Oh well. Where was I?
I started by standing in my workshop wondering what to do next to learn. I wanted a new saw, so I’d made a new miter saw stand. Then I decided to work on an old rotten ladder. To do so I needed a couple sawhorses.
It’s almost like God knows and wants to help. A search for sawhorses became “carpentry 101” and things got fun…
More will follow… because of course it will.