Between Craft and Quality
19th August 2026
Over the past two centuries the things we buy were quietly rebuilt so that most of what determines their quality exists where no buyer can see it. At the same time, we lost the skills that enabled us to judge quality on the parts that still show.
Both losses have a single cause.
On the maker’s side, production withdrew into factories and distant trades. When things were made in the household or the town, the manufacturing processes sat in plain sight. We knew what went into the objects we owned because we saw them being produced. Now the things that determine whether a product will last are completely hidden from view.
Meanwhile, the same forces pushed each of us deeper into narrower fields of work. We do one thing for a living and outsource the rest. But the ability to judge how well a thing is made comes from having made things. The fewer kinds of things we make, the fewer kinds of things we can judge.