We plan out our jobs, workflow, schedules … everything we can think of. And then we try to factor in the unexpected with contingency clauses and other exclusions.

Technology has been creeping into how we do business for a long time now. Obviously, CNC machines have taken on an increasing role in cutting, milling, shaping, carving, etc. And hand-held tools like routers and sanders are a lot smarter than used to be.

I’ve been getting more and more frustrated in my attempts to find people who know how to work.

In my junior high shop class, the instructor insisted that we begin by planing the edge of a board. The edge had to be straight and square. I spent most of the semester trying to accomplish this.

Every time I see a video or read a tutorial about how to do something, I think again about what it takes to really master a process. There are two parts to learning. One is the acquisition of knowledge. The other is the acquisition of skill.

How many times has an employee asked for a raise, saying something like “I’ve been here for x-number of years” or “Joe is getting more money than I am.”

Over the past couple of years, we have been on an economic roller coaster. The stock markets have been bouncing around like a lopsided super ball, record gains one day, record losses the next.

It is often said that the customer is always right. Obviously, this is suggesting that the customer should always be accommodated in whatever he or she wants. And, to some extent this is a good policy. It can often lead to a very happy and satisfied customer. But not always.

I have a lot of pieces of wood that are too good to throw away but too small to really be useful. We sometimes call pieces like this scrap, but I have always maintained that there is no such thing as scrap.