First post.
December 31, 2010
Ox Barn
Last fall I began cleaning out the ox barn at the family farm in Cohasset, Mass. It was built in the 1930’s to house my grandfather’s oxen. It now belongs to my father, and he kindly has allowed me to use it to indulge my hobby of rustic furniture building and what I call intentional inefficiency.
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If it’s intentional, is it really inefficiency?
I guess I’d say, I know I’m not doing things the most efficient way one might, but that’s the point.
Well, I guess I’m making a tiny point here, so I’ll belabor it for a moment for clarity’s sake. What is “efficiency”? It’s progress toward a desired outcome per unit time. Well, if part of the desired outcome is that you do it by hand (e.g., “craftsmanship of risk”) or without power or whatever other constraint is important, then what you’re doing is inefficient iff there was some technique that would have allowed you to do it by hand (if that was your constraint) faster.
So I wouldn’t say you were being inefficient, unless producing a piece by the fastest means possible was your goal. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t, so there you are…
Point taken.