Building tools is being human

I’ve been chewing on this one for a while. Reverence for tools and how we make, refine and use these tools is as human as it gets.

It’s a testament to how far we’ve come that we can obsess over tools as an art form, leisure or just a celebrate the fact that we can build things for beauty without agonizing over utility alone.

And the beauty of objects such as knives, earphones, wallets, cars, furniture, gym equipment is that the utility, beauty and thought in it needs no description. Our capacity to appreciate, admire or be in awe of something is in how we can use it, admire it or just gasp at the sheer chutzpah and skill it took to build something.

I remember being blown away by a video showing how the ear cups for a high-end Sennheiser are made.

Do headphones need to be agonized over so much by someone who does not have a nuanced ear for music? Not really. But I find it fascinating that there are people who dedicate their lives to agonizing over this problem.

And as I went through a book titled The Shortest history of Japan, I read about how the Japanese have been agonizing over intricate sculptures, vessels and porcelain for a couple of millennia now.

And there are the temples in my own backyard. It boggles how our ancestors without cranes etc managed to construct temples with over 200 feet high using rocks that were hand carved. These endeavors required tools.

It is fairly safe to say humans agonize over the tools they use to get through the day a LOT.

I use the word tool both literally and metaphorically.

Tools to enhance our productivity for agriculture, hunting and building structures were endeavors that built civilizations. Building tools is to be human. You can’t separate the two. Animals build tools to get something done. We build tools to go much further than that.

Our capacity to build tools of increasing intricacy has only scaled by several magnitudes. I could not begin to understand most of one such machining video.

But it doesn’t take scientific prowess to recognize what is being accomplished is ridiculously intricate. Both the margins and scale cannot be visualized.

Even less complex methods such as watching machinists, polishing, welding or a CNC machine in action, looks like magic.

And personally, a lot of what I make is not critical or life-changing. In fact our builds are rudimentary. Nothing complex about it. The tools we make feel like the most obvious way to load a squat, push, pull, row, glute ham or carry. But the satisfaction you get from breathing life into something that you see on paper turning it into something that you can hold and use to produce outcomes that improve quality of life is indescribable.