Source: https://infosec.exchange/@0xabad1dea/117485038136053872
transcript
“It’s a poor worksman who blames his tools” has always been complete nonsense. No-one complains about imperfect tools faster and louder than a master. A master will yank a cheap or damaged tool out of your hand and yell at you for not blaming it yet
Cheap, lousy tools come from middle managers who don’t know how to do your job. Blame the hell out of poor tools and those who demand you use them
This totally misses the point of the phrase. A master won’t blame their tools, because they’ll still make a wonderful piece even with shoddy tools. They’ll complain about them though, which is distinct from blame.
An amateur doesn’t have the skills needed to make a masterpiece, even if they have the best tools. They won’t understand how to best make use of good tools, so they’re only going to help so much in their hands.
That’s the point of the phrase, but it may also be a product of an earlier time when tools were not as widely available and varied in quality. It may not mean the same thing today.
In a modern sense, a real master craftsman simply won’t work with cheap, shoddy tools unless necessary. They will invest in the thing that let’s them work. It’s a tax write off anyway, it’s worth the cost. You won’t catch a world-renowned carpenter at Harbor Freight buying the cheapest just from the discount bin.
If anything, while it means in one sense that a poor craftsman will blame shitty tools, because a good craftsman won’t suffer shitty tools in the first place.
I totally agree with you but have a snarky correction to the last part:
A Master Craftsman knows what makes more sense to buy at Harbor Freight. You’ll never catch them buying saw blades there but a 20-pack of paint pyramids for $5 gets the job done the same as a 4-pack for $10
Yeah, I’m no master but reasonably competent and there’s definitely shit at harbor freight that’s worth buying. Just have to know enough to know what to look for. Every tradesman I know is well acquainted with that place.
I had a coworker who tried some fancy unbreakable fish rods (for pulling wire, not fishing poles) and after breaking one, immediately went back to the shitty harbor freight rods.
They’re gonna break. Why waste the money on the “good” ones