Go Make Something Useless

Why some of the most valuable time in the shop begins without a plan

Playing doesn’t need to involve toys…but it can!

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.”

This quote is often attributed to George Bernard Shaw, the Irish playwright, critic and political commentator who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925. Whether or not Shaw said those exact words, the idea behind them feels especially relevant in the workshop.

Most of us enter the shop with a plan. There’s a project to finish, a deadline to meet or a piece of lumber that needs to become something useful. We measure the success of our shop time by what we produce. A completed chair is productive. An afternoon spent testing different ways to shape a curve can feel less so.

But play has value, even when it doesn’t leave us with anything we can put on a shelf.

Some of the best time I’ve spent in the shop has involved no real project at all. I’ve picked up a tool simply because I wanted to see what it could do. I’ve planed a scrap of wood to see how thin I could make it, experimented with a new joint or followed an idea that probably wasn’t going anywhere. Sometimes those experiments taught me something useful. Sometimes they produced nothing more than an oddly shaped offcut and a pile of shavings.

That doesn’t make the time wasted.

Play gives us permission to work without knowing exactly where we’re headed. There’s no pressure to get it right because there’s nothing at stake. If the joint doesn’t fit, the curve looks terrible or the idea falls apart completely, we haven’t ruined a project. We’ve simply learned one more thing about the material, the tool or ourselves.

This is often how real understanding develops. We stop following a sequence of steps and begin asking questions. What happens if I change the angle? Can this tool do something it wasn’t designed for? Is there an easier way to make this cut? What if I ignore the usual method and try something different?

The shop should be a place where those questions are welcome.

Producing things is satisfying, of course. Finishing a project gives us a sense of accomplishment and something tangible to show for our time. But if every visit to the shop becomes another exercise in productivity, woodworking can start to feel suspiciously like a job. Even the hobby we love can become another list of tasks waiting to be completed.

So every once in a while, go into the shop without a project. Pick up a tool you haven’t used lately. Grab an offcut from the scrap bin and see where it takes you. Carve a shape, cut a joint or try an idea that might be completely ridiculous.

You may discover a new technique. You may stumble onto the beginning of your next project. Or you may simply spend an enjoyable hour making absolutely nothing.

That’s still time well spent.

In order to understand, you must do. - Vic