Few things embody more pure talent than the detail of traditional Japanese carpentry.
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I always say that there are two things for which I have endless respect in this life: people that take initiative to start things, and people that have developed a highly refined skill. The first is a topic for another day; today I want to give my attention to skill.
It is a curious state of being in this world that humans devote most of their time to learning and acquiring information, especially early in life. No one comes into (out of) the world with anything else than a mind which is structured to perceive, imitate and extrapolate. While natural inclination, instinct and talent exist, a skill or ability must be introduced, nurtured and systematically developed if it is to become refined and productive. Most societies have a social life structured around this necessity. In modern society it is implied that a child first learns a language and basic rules of social interaction by spending time with its parents, before it is set onto the 12-year path of acquiring the basic academic curriculum of grade school. All these years of school prepare a teenager for admission into higher education, where one is subject to at least five or six years more schooling before a person is finally considered to be prepared at the age of 25 at the earliest to enter out into society and start to apply all that one has learned.
Naturally this process is rarely so linear in reality, and the people that come out of formal education today are far from guaranteed to possess any kind of refined skill as a result of these years. It is though to say that it is now generally accepted that one must spend over a quarter of one’s life at least acquiring knowledge and developing skill.
A page from «The Walking Man» by Jiro Taniguchi. The talent of Japanese manga artists is indubitable.
As it stands, there is no way around the necessity for a human being to scan millions and millions of lines of text or repeat various physical motions over and over again before it can exercise a skill at a high level. One of the most revolutionary technologies that could ever be invented would be something that allowed one to bypass the learning process entirely, to be able instantly to impart a new skill into a person sort of like installing a software update on a computer. We are undoubtedly on the way towards such a thing from the imagined worlds of science fiction as people continue to mess around with brain implants and such. Imagine for example if a language pack could just be downloaded into a person’s brain, such that the countless hours of personal devotion and study required to learn to speak in a foreign language instantly became obviated. Humans have recently become able to fake such a result with the invention and proliferation of convenient consumer electronics (increasingly with the use of AI and chatbots), but having access to an instant translator on a smartphone is far from the same thing as actually possessing the skill of speaking the other language within one’s own head.
If such a technology existed, perhaps something valuable would still have been lost. I genuinely believe that the process of learning a skill is part of what creates the amazing uniqueness of personalities and expressions that is responsible for all of the human-created beauty in the world. There is no way to teach creativity, and even if it was possible to do so, it would reduce creativity down to a mechanism which true creative behaviour would quickly surpass. The objective is not necessarily just to obtain a given skill, but also to become the person that emerges through the process of learning it as a by-product. Learning as an activity cannot really be delineated: it affects all aspects of life, including personality, character, personal history, discipline, trajectory and relationships. People that are constantly open to learn and revise themselves exist in a different way in the world in comparison to people that are not.
Highly refined skill and creativity on full display on a concept board for the world of the computer game "Command & Conquer 3". Here we see highly developed illustration skills, combined with storytelling and creative imagination. I wish I knew the name of the person behind this board. It is probably a concept artist or team of concept artists that worked at Electronic Arts somewhere between 2005-2007.
Skill is also a means of expression. To express yourself, you have to learn the skill of writing, articulating yourself in speech, painting, sculpting, or something else. Through repeated engagement and a lot of trial and error, it is possible to enter slowly into the realm of pure quality. As you continually express yourself through a certain medium, you become more adept at doing so. Skill also compounds, as I somewhat referred to before: while natural talent might allow a person to skip slightly ahead in the process, no amount of it can allow one to jump straight to the end. A skill can only be truly mastered through long periods of devotion and practice. There are no shortcuts.
Watching a highly-skilled person perform their craft is one of my favourite experiences. The first example that comes to mind is late artist Kim Jung Gi. It is a delight to watch this man draw: with a simple pen he was able to free-style entire worlds in perspective and intricate detail, and is one of the few artists that I know of who was able to start in his teaching by producing a finished drawing, and then draw the sketch after the fact!
Kim Jung Gi practicing his craft.
There is no possibility for any pleasure in life at all without skill. Even a mindless consumer is dependent upon there being other people out there that create things to be enjoyed through their skills. All our favourite music is the result of the craft of skilled musicians (assuming that we are talking about good music, of course). It is only possible to enjoy good food if there are skilled chefs out there that can cook it. For the chefs to have access to good ingredients, there needs to be skilled gardeners and distillers. Even for the gardeners and distillers to be able to produce their products, there must be skilled producers of tools, and so on.
A skill is often developed as a by-product of an original fascination and passion. There is immense pleasure in learning how to do anything skilfully. Technique can be taught, but one cannot teach spirit. I believe that one of the most important things in life, especially for young people, is to find something that one is interested in, and spend a lot of time getting really good at it. Genuine interest in a topic is somewhat rare in the world today, and it cannot be feigned. Eventually someone will come along and pay you quite a generous wage to do what you are skilled at! Most skills offer the possibility for open-ended learning, which means that one never really can devote enough time to develop them and there is always more to learn or a new path to take. A skill can quickly become the foundation of a meaningful life for a lifetime.
One can be skilled at many things, and they absolutely do not have to be conventionally «prestigious» skills in order to produce value. Quite the opposite. Artists like myself are naturally drawn to admire the same skills that we are also trying to build, but there is for example extreme delight in the abilities of highly skilled tradesmen. A good plumber or electrician can come in and solve a problem promptly, efficiently and effectively with their knowledge and skill. It is often quite comical to observe how effective people that are asked to do quite repetitive, seemingly boring tasks eventually become in carrying out these tasks. I remember reading somewhere about someone that was extremely good at carving pumpkins. Unfortunately I forget where I saw the story, but I remember that the individual admitted himself that he would have preferred to have been good at something more useful. Carving pumpkins was though what he had, and he had become so good at carving them that he had generated an impressive amount of attention (we are talking nearly world-famous)!
Mastery of a skill is the ultimate status. It can neither be bought nor inherited. It cannot be rushed, and it can never be stolen. It can only be earned through hard work. Through doing the hard work, we become unique and compelling people which would be impossible to become without it.
Alvar Aalto (1898-1976) was a master at composing a facade. You can almost sense his intuitive understanding of proportion and form in the final drawings.
At the same time, a day does not go by these days where I wonder if I have everything in proper balance. Developing a skill takes time, which also requires dedication and isolation and entails that one chooses not to spend time on developing other things, especially relationships. There is no common solution to this problem, since we all have the same 24 hours in a day. Perhaps the acceptable answer will differ for everyone. This one scene from the movie «Before Sunrise» will always occupy space in my mind (I did not expect to be bowled over by a movie like this when I first watched it on a random Tuesday a few years ago):
«If I’m totally honest with myself, I think I’d rather die knowing that I was really good at something, that I had excelled in some way, rather than I had just been in a nice, caring relationship.»
«Yeah, but…I had worked for this older man and once he told me that he had spent all of his life thinking about his career and his work, and he was 52 and it suddenly struck him that he had never really given anything of himself. His life was for no one and nothing. He was almost crying saying that. You know I believe if there’s any kind of God, it wouldn’t be in any of us. Not you, or me. But just…this little space in between. If there’s any kind of magic in this world, it must be in the intent of understanding something, sharing something. I know, it’s almost impossible to succeed, but who cares really? The answer must be in the attempt…»
A still from «Before Sunrise» (1995). Director Richard Linklater.
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