The problem is the idea that the alternative to making is usually not doing nothing—it’s almost always doing things for and with other people, from the barista to the Facebook community moderator to the social worker to the surgeon.
Chachra, D. (2015, January 23). Why I am not a Maker. The Atlantic. Retrieved September 16, 2022, from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/01/why-i-am-not-a-maker/384767/
This article acknowledges the depreciation of job positions that are marked as ‘non-makers’ by a widespread idea that “People who make things are simply different [read: better] than those who don’t” and refutes that idea in detail. I was interested in this article because it is traditionally believed that the ‘value’ of one’s work is measured by the outcome, and furthermore, it is usually that ‘value’ of their work that defines the ‘value’ of the person.
In this article, the ‘value’ of job positions is being questioned and re-examined. One of the examples that the author gave, that teachers are non-makers and are usually interpreted as a female domain, helped me relate back to my experiences in a previous Educational Studies class. I remembered that the belief that teaching is a job (1) for normal people instead of people that have technical specialties (and therefore low-paid) and (2) that it largely involves caretaking and therefore is interpreted as ‘feminine’ originated from a long time ago. I also remembered that one thing I took out of nearly every computer science class is that the final code is very easy for me to reproduce and is much less valuable than the effort that was put into figuring it out and debugging it for the first time.
As for the reasons and expectations that I take this class, so far, I am very interested in 3D modeling as it is such a powerful tool for the digital creation of almost anything. I am eager to learn and become proficient in fusion 360. I am also interested in exploring the potential of fusion 360 as I saw animations created by this software. In the meantime, it is also a pleasure to learn to use WordPress as a web development tool. I look forward to getting to know more powerful software that does fantastic things.
