Comment by ponector
1 day ago
Yet usually woodworking is not a viable business. As a craft - sure. As a day job to provide for your family - not really. Guys who created a custom tables for me five years ago are out of business.
Pretty much the same story with any craft.
The Mechanics Institute, where craftsman learned and offered their wares in my town, was founded in 1801.
Its still here, today.
I wouldn't dismiss an industry based on business failures. The restaurant industry still exists, despite it being almost a guarantee that you will fail.
There's also stores with hand-knitted clothes and bears, sculpters and painters.
Yes, all of these are niche - but they survive because they embrace a different business model.
>> Its still here, today.
Because it is a different business, to teach people. So many places are teaching nice things that could help little to get a job with living wage.
It's not a university or TAFE.
The teaching they do is conferences - they host archeology, psychology, and engineering mini-conferences and talks, today. Whilst also being one of the biggest libraries in the town.
This isn't somewhere handing out a bunch of useless Certificate IIs. Its somewhere you need a degree to even get in the door.
Their primary income is actually from trade unions - almost all of them rent their office out of the building, because of its established connections to everyone who knows something. And all members get access to the library, equipment and most talks. (Though not the rat warrens that still run under the town from the gold rush.)
America and a bunch of western developed countries are about to experience first hand why immigrants go to their countries. I find some of the comments here funny, they don’t have the imagination on how bad things can really get.
I wouldn't know. Been 25 years since I lived in South America. I live in one of those western nations - Australia.
Right, nobody needs cabinets or doors because... AI. /s
I'm a professional woodworker. One-off tables in a garage might not be a great business, but millwork, built-ins, and cabinetry in homes is a great business. You're likely not exposed to cabinet or architectural woodwork shops that build high-end homes, or that just do renovation for that matter.
A better comparison to Ikea vs Handcraft would be shrinkwrap software vs custom software for companies. With AI, the custom software industry is getting disrupted (if the current trajectory of improvements continue).
In case of woodcraft, there is some tangible result that can be appreciated and displayed as art. In case of custom software, there is no such displayability.
There are still plenty of industries that won't trust AI generated anything unless it's gone over with a fine tooth comb, or maybe not even then. Devs will still have careers there. I'm talking about medical devices, safety critical systems, etc. In any case, I don't even believe AI gen code will get there anytime soon, but if I'm wrong that's okay too.
That’s the point. It used to be something almost everyone bought. Now it’s relegated to high-end luxury. The craft still exists, and you can still do well, but it’s much diminished.
It’s not that nobody needs cabinets or doors. It’s that automation, transportation, and economies of scale have made it much cheaper to produce those things with machines in a factory.
> One-off tables in a garage might not be a great business, but millwork, built-ins, and cabinetry in homes is a great business.
I'd like to see numbers backing that up. My personal impression is that you have a small number of custom woodworkers hustling after an ever smaller number of rich clients. That seems like exactly the same problem.