Artisans and Independence

In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Self-Reliance

As we leave the industrial era behind, perhaps rather more rapidly than we thought a few months ago thanks to Coronavirus, I think we might take note of one of the key attributes of artisans; their independence.

Back before the industrial era, those who had their own businesses, the "Masters" were fiercely independent, and their work original. Artisans do not copy or plagiarise. use preconceived business models or templates. They do the work they felt born to do. They had apprentices who learned from them until such time as they became their own masters and set off on their own path, and journeymen who worked for them. Not all of them of course made it, but the principle was clear.

As I read and study, and share the conversation that yield the insights I am able to share with those with whom I work, the ideas they often feel like old fr…