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Is the Seeking of Lost Skills/Arts a Hacking Analog?
bigattichouse asks: "Having just finished my first batch of home-brew beer, I've been thinking about my attraction to 'lost arts', and collecting books on 'how to do stuff'. Some I try, some I just read: metalsmithing, sewing, baking bread, making soap, knot tying, brewing beer, woodcarving, yogurt and cheese.. there are so many skills 'lost' in the modern 'american' lifestyle... but I find my fellows tend to have books on these subjects lying around, too. Is this common in geekdom? Is this an expression of 'hacking' outside of machinery/engineering?"
I think this guy's right. If you really want to see a bunch of nerds going crazy with esoteric endeavors, look no further than the Society for Creative Anachronism. They're pretty much the only people left in the world who make battle-quality chain mail, scale mail, and plate mail in the medieval style.
Cyde Weys Musings - Scrutinizing the inscrutable
You know, the Simple Object Access Protocol?
Seriously, I remember helping my dad (an electrical engineer) making a batch of soap. Of course this involved many side tracks like measuring the temperature changes when the lye was added to the water and testing various ways to improve the purity of the fat.
In 5th grade a bunch of my class visited to learn how soap was made.
My dad stopped when he realized that he had enough to last the rest of his life (it is quite hard unlike store-bought and each bar lasts quite a while).
He still delivers a bag when he visits so it's the soap I still use as well.
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"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
Jargon File entry: http://www.hack.gr/jargon/html/sections/a-portrait -of-j-random-hacker.html
Climbers have always customised or made their own gear. Perhaps because if it breaks they have to fix it while being snowed on and hanging next to a vertical cliff face. Or perhaps they are happy with taking risks.
I don't know, as far as the gear that keeps me alive goes,(Eg harnesses and boots) I'm personally happy with getting OTS gear and breaking it in until it fits me. Cutting, stretching, or otherwise structurally altering it is only something that I'd pay somebody else to do, so there's somebody else's eyes on the job to tell me if my idea is suicide.
On the other hand those modified zipper pulls are damn handy.
"My dad stopped when he realized that he had enough to last the rest of his life (it is quite hard unlike store-bought and each bar lasts quite a while)."
That would be in part, because you didn't whip air into it. The ingredients are the other part.
of is "The Forgotten Arts and Crafts" by John Semour. Amazon.com has it and lets you look at lots of it online. Check it out.
It's full of how to do "outdated" arts like thatching a house, making fences with hand built tools and materials gathered in the forest, and blacksmithing, in addition to household type crafts such as making cream and butter and soap. I bought it a couple months ago after finding an enormously positive review on the net somewhere. It is full of enough diagrams to satisfy the average geek.
As for why seeking lost skills is an attraction to geeks, I think it comes down to problem solving. Problem solving is a trait universally desirable in geeks. It doesn't matter if the problem is how to get your program to run in less than x seconds or how to get information from here to there quickly over the phone system or how to make your own yogurt. It's all problem solving.
Books like this appeal to geeks because they open a new (old) world of problems and give elegant solutions to them. The solutions are time-tested and have come from the collective mind of thousands and thousands of clever people. It is a natural geek thing to do to admire their elegant solutions to their problems.
There's also a huge feeling of escape from the headaches of technology when you imagine life without computers, electricity, etc. I'm not sure about all of geekdom, but I enjoy understanding and imagining a technologically simple life that doesn't include depending on a keyboard and screen for a livelihood.
Semi-tangential, magician Ricky Jay isn't just a performer; he's also a devoted student of the history of magic. He often talks about how important this historical knoweledge is to understanding his art, and his own place in the greater timeline of that art.
It's a lesson that could probably be applied to most contemporary professions...
I would believe this if I didn't personally know half a dozen people who know how to make their own pistol ammunition. I live in the lower midwest -- trust me on this one.
irb(main):001:0>
Check out the 'foxfire' books... they are a combination of mountain man tall tales and 'how to skin a bear' manuals... popular in the 70's I think. http://www.foxfire.org/public.htm
1) Knives deliver multiple wounds quickly.
2) A stab tends to lacerate multiple organs.
3) Stab wounds are more likely to remain open (forget the more technical term for this).
Also, one article I read had some rather creepy statistics (unfortunately, I don't have the link on this PC) derived from the researcher's experience. For example, he conducted a training session with a group of Victoria RCMP officers. Part of the exercise involved a "criminal" flashing a chalked fake knife at the officer, screaming "fuck you, pig", and attacking.
73 out of 85 of them failed to notice the knife at any point during the assault, with none of them realizing they had been stabbed (multiple times) until seeing the chalk marks left on their uniforms. One officer, who had controlled the attacker's knife arm with both of his hands, and had looked straight at the hand for fifteen seconds, refused to believe a knife had been involved until they replayed the video for him. Even this statistic assumes that a criminal would be stupid enough to brazenly flash a knife like that. It is of course much more common to merely palm the knife until within striking range.
Pardon my digression.
So basicly you're trying to say you're better than everybody else here because you're not an elitist? Um.... Something doesn't work here.
No. What I think gripdamage was basically saying was that there is nothing here. That there is no essential "geekiness", no "special light which shines from within them", etc. We/they are the same as everyone else whether we like it or not. I agree that most of the replies on this subject are complete elitist crap.
He (?) is not saying that he's better. He's just saying that perhaps some people should stop trying to justify their hobbies with some higher purpose, and maybe, just enjoy.
I think he's welcoming them back down to Earth.
Z.
I hope I'm not too late in this thread but I am surprised that nobody has mentioned the Foxfire books (at least I haven't seen anything modded up yet).
The Foxfire Fund was established to preserve the vanishing folkways of Appalachia and, let me tell you, those people knew how to provide for themselves.
There is an extensive series of books covering such diverse utilitarian topics as wood lore, blacksmithing, instrument making, weaving and so on.
Check it out at The Foxfire Fund.
Foxfire????? 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8