Dave Copeland 

Apropos of my "Death of a Software Craftsman" post, legendary woodworker Paul Sellers talks about the near-elimination of hand-tool woodworking during the rise of power tools, plus an extended almost rant about how a small set of simple, reliable tools can meet just about any need (based on his 4-5 decades of building furniture)

I feel this when I e.g. try using an LSP, don't get it, and go back to just using vim as I have for years, being perfectly productive.

https://paulsellers.com/2026/03/democratising-handwork-in-wood

Democratising Handwork in Wood

The isolation of my early handwork prepared me for the hard slog going against the ever-advancing tide of machining wood that almost rendered craftwork dead. You might not know this fact as the reality of the day, but handwork in professional realms was actually gone and in amateur realms it

Paul Sellers' Blog
Mar 2 at 3:40pmWeb
Show threadsuviMar 2
@davetron5000 any productivity is undone by more time fighting the language server. Copilot is even worse!
Show threadJared White (ResistanceNet ✊)Mar 2
@davetron5000 This reminded me of a dear friend and sometimes client of mine and his journey backing out of increasingly machine-produced wooden flutes and going back to more simple power tools and yes hand tools. https://www.ellisflutes.com/blog/technology-and-flute-making
Show threadKevin McFaddenMar 2

@davetron5000 I haven't figured out how to best use an LLM, but several prominent rubyists have.

My observation is you have to go all in on managing it or experience minimal gains.

Show threadIrenes (many)Mar 2
@davetron5000 yeah for sure. highly relatable.