The Case for Working with Your Hands: Or Why Office Work is Bad for Us and Fixing Things Feels Good

It's time to rethink our attitudes to work.

For too long, we have convinced ourselves that the only jobs worth doing involve sitting at a desk. Generations of school-leavers head for university lacking the skills to fix or even understand the most basic technology. And yet, many of us are not suited to office life, while skilled manual work provides one of the few and most rewarding paths to a secure living.

Key Insights from the Book:

• Challenges with Office Work: Office life isn't for everyone, despite societal norms pushing us toward desk jobs.
• Value of Skilled Manual Work: Skilled manual labor offers a fulfilling and secure career path, often overlooked in modern education.
• Generational Gap in Practical Skills: Many young people today lack the ability to engage with or repair basic technology.

A Thoughtful Exploration of Work:

Matthew Crawford draws on the wisdom of great thinkers, including:

• Aristotle
• Heidegger
• Iris Murdoch

He combines their insights with his own hands-on experiences as an electrician and motorcycle mechanic. The result is an irreverent and inspiring manifesto that will change the way you think about work forever.