What does it mean to do careful work in a world that rewards speed? Notes on craft as a practice.
2 min read
The speed trap
There's a persistent idea that faster is better. Ship it. Move fast. Iterate. And there's truth in that — perfectionism kills more projects than imperfection ever did.
But there's a difference between moving fast and not caring. Speed is a tool. Care is a practice. The best work happens when you're fast and careful — when you've practiced enough that quality doesn't require slowness.
Craft as attention
Craft isn't about luxury materials or artisanal branding. It's about noticing things. The musician who hears a resonance that needs taming. The engineer who spots a race condition before it manifests. The writer who cuts a sentence because the rhythm is wrong.
These are acts of attention. They happen because someone cared enough to look closely. That's all craft really is: the habit of looking closely, and the skill to act on what you see.
The cairn metaphor
Each stone in a cairn needs to sit well on the one below it. You can't rush the placement. But you also can't spend forever on a single stone — the cairn needs to grow. The practice is finding the balance: care without preciousness, speed without carelessness.
That's what this studio is for.