This wonderful review of Durable Trades was just shared with us:
Durable Trades is more than a career guide; it’s a treatise on why certain professions have always been necessary and what makes a career fulfilling. It is also an argument for a return to family-centered economies rather than a focus on climbing the career ladder. In the foreword to the book, Dr. Allan C. Carlson explains, “While almost every other ‘career book’ buys into the argument that workers will need to completely retrain every five to seven years just to keep a job, this author proves that there are many rich and rewarding forms of labor with astonishing records of durability.”
Groves, a computer scientist turned homesteader, changed professions mid-career out of a desire to spend more of his time “building things that will last.” As a former computer scientist, the author admits that he has seen his share of “obsolescence.”
“Nothing can be more temporary than what comes out of Silicon Valley,” he adds. “We live in a time when companies employ ‘planned obsolescence’ to make sure things they produce wear out and need to be replaced, so we need to keep earning money to buy the replacements.”
In contrast, during previous generations, things that broke down were fixed or repurposed. Neither were people disposable. “A person’s worth was not the net total of his paycheck. Children were viewed as gifts from God and the elderly revered as the wellspring of wisdom. Everyone from cradle to grave had value and purpose and was needed by the community if the community were to survive.”
