Matthew Crawford: Useful Art

In society, there is a clear distinction between thinkers and doers; Matthew Crawford wants to blur that line and call attention to the combination of the two skillsets. As a mechanic, he understands that working with your hands coincides with using your brain for problem-solving. He urges readers to find a “useful art” (Crawford, 2009, p. 13) in order to overcome the mundanity that arises from white collar work and, simply, thinking. I do not consider myself to be fluent in a useful art, and I think Crawford’s definition is vastly understated. Everyone I know does something that brings them into contact with reality; it does not need to be what he calls useful. I play music to gain my contact with reality, and I think that it just as important as learning how to unclog a pipe. As long as it brings
They are people who go to college and then chase after jobs in the white collar workforce. Doers are those who work with their hands. These include mechanics, construction workers, plumbers, the people who are vital to fixing and making all the stuff we own. Typically, the doers are seen as the less educated workers, but Crawford makes the case that they are actually more educated because of all the on-the-job training and apprenticeships they do (2009). Due to this extensive training, doers learn how to be in conversation with their work, and they actually care about what it is they are doing. Their minds and bodies become in sync through working with their hands and using their brains. Thinkers, on the other hand, are less inclined to care about their careers, they do not think because use the same mundane skills every day, and have less pleasurable job satisfaction. Crawford also claims that we should be learning how to fix and take control of our own stuff instead of depending on others for all our minor repairs, and lessening the gap between thinking and doing even if it is just for leisure and not work