The Charming Artisan

“A Jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.” – Robert Greene, 1592

In a world that is increasingly becoming more niche oriented (where people seem to think that other people can only do one thing), the quote has become shorter and rather divisive. “A Jack of all trades is a master of none!”

There are Carpenters, then there are Framers. Framers are Carpenters but they only do the rough framing and then move on to the next building. Then other Carpenters come and do a bit more, but not the rest of the work. Cabinetmakers are typically Carpenters but they have specialized and only hang cabinets. If the walls are out-of-square, they have to deal with it, but they aren’t the ones who built the walls, them guys have moved on. In short, there is no real accountability for a sloppy days work.

The tradesmen who do the rough-in should be the ones who do the finishing as well. If any issues arise during the finishing stage, lessons will be learnt and hopefully not repeated. Not to mention, fixing a mistake that far into the process is typically a lot more work than doing it right the first time.

Most issues during any process can be caught and dealt with if you have some sort of Quality Control program. Asking a co-worker to look over your work (and vice versa) before moving on to the next task is the minimum you should do to ensure that you are doing little to no re-work. It typically doesn’t take very long and your boss will love it.

Other Trades need to be able to do the work of other trades. The Carpenters don’t have time to install all of the blocking required for the Electricians and Plumbers so the Electricians and Plumbers take care of their own. Most trades get to learn how to work with other building materials than what might be classified as their own. Electricians, for example, work with wood and metal. Different metals like copper, aluminum and stainless steel. Everyone gets to work with concrete, siding and different roofing materials.

In essence, every trade is a Jack of all Trades and eventually a master of one.