Why We Make Things and Why It Matters
The Education of a Craftsman
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Narrated by:
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Traber Burns
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By:
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Peter Korn
About this listen
In this moving account, Peter Korn explores the nature and rewards of creative practice. We follow his search for meaning as an Ivy-educated child of the middle class who finds employment as a novice carpenter on Nantucket, transitions to self-employment as a designer and maker of fine furniture, takes a turn at teaching and administration at Colorado's Anderson Ranch Arts Center, and then founds a school in Maine: the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship, an internationally respected nonprofit institution.
Furniture making practiced as a craft in the 21st century is a decidedly marginal occupation. Yet the view from the periphery can be illuminating. For Korn the challenging work of bringing something new and meaningful into the world through one's own volition—whether in the arts, the kitchen, or the marketplace—is what generates the meaning and fulfillment that so many of us seek.
This is not a how-to book in any sense. Korn wants to get at the why of craft in particular and the satisfactions of creative work in general to understand their essential nature. How does the making of objects shape our identities? How do the products of creative work inform society? In short, what does the process of making things reveal to us about ourselves? Korn draws on four decades of hands-on experience to answer these questions eloquently, and often poignantly, in this personal, introspective, and revealing book.
©2013 Peter Korn (P)2014 Blackstone AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...
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The Great Work of Your Life
- A Guide for the Journey to Your True Calling
- By: Stephen Cope
- Narrated by: Kevin M. Connolly
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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To know your true calling - your dharma, as the yogis say - is perhaps the greatest desire within each of us. And yet, few can say we know our purpose with absolute certainty. Fortunately, there is a time-tested guide - an ancient map - for discovering and fulfilling your unique calling. In The Great Work of Your Life, Stephen Cope walks you through each step of the journey.
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Jungian Zen Psychoanalytical Retired Meditation Teacher
- By Glenn Guillory, SFO on 06-13-20
By: Stephen Cope
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A Place of My Own
- The Architecture of Daydreams
- By: Michael Pollan
- Narrated by: Michael Pollan
- Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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With this updated edition of his earlier book, A Place of My Own, listeners can revisit the inspired, intelligent, and often hilarious story of Pollan’s realization of a room of his own—a small, wooden hut, his “shelter for daydreams” — built with his admittedly unhandy hands. Inspired by both Thoreau and Mr. Blandings, A Place of My Own not only works to convey the history and meaning of all human building, it also marks the connections between our bodies, our minds, and the natural world.
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Pollan is the master of hipster porn
- By Darwin8u on 02-28-15
By: Michael Pollan
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The Spark and the Grind
- Ignite the Power of Disciplined Creativity
- By: Erik Wahl
- Narrated by: Erik Wahl, Tasha Wahl
- Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Erik Wahl, a visual artist, speaker, and entrepreneur, helps us unite the yin and yang of creativity - the dynamic new ideas with the dogged effort. He shows why we won't get far if we rely on the spark without the grind or the grind without the spark. What the world really needs are the creators who can hold the two in balance. This audiobook offers surprising insights and practical advice about how to fan the sparks and make the grind more productive.
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Worth reading!
- By june d barnard on 06-01-18
By: Erik Wahl
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Foursome
- Alfred Stieglitz, Georgia O'Keeffe, Paul Strand, Rebecca Salsbury
- By: Carolyn Burke
- Narrated by: Amanda Carlin
- Length: 16 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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New York, 1921: Acclaimed photographer Alfred Stieglitz celebrates the success of his latest exhibition - the centerpiece, a series of nude portraits of his soon-to-be wife, the young Georgia O'Keeffe. The exhibit acts as a turning point for the painter poised to make her entrance into the art scene. There, she meets Rebecca Salsbury, the fiancé of Stieglitz’s protégé, Paul Strand, marking the start of a bond between the couples that will last more than a decade and reverberate throughout their lives.
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A competent account of four interesting lives
- By Sil A. on 11-21-20
By: Carolyn Burke
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The E-Myth Enterprise
- By: Michael E. Gerber
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 4 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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The E-Myth Enterprise explores the requirements that any new business must meet: the satisfaction of its four primary influencers - its employees, customers, suppliers, and investors - through four fundamental categories - visual, emotional, functional, and financial. Together these form the twin strategies every entrepreneur must use to design a business.
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Well done on your other book!
- By Nigel Bond on 10-19-09
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Letters to a Young Artist
- By: Anna Deavere Smith
- Narrated by: Anna Deavere Smith
- Length: 4 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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From "the most exciting individual in American theater" ( Newsweek), here is Anna Deavere Smith's brass-tacks advice to aspiring artists of all stripes. In the manner of Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, Deavere Smith mentors her young artist over a period of five years, sharing her hard-won wisdom about the challenges and rewards of the artistic life.
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Great advice for artists of any age.
- By S. Barker on 10-30-17
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The Element
- How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything
- By: Ken Robinson Ph.D.
- Narrated by: Ken Robinson Ph. D., Lou Aronica
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The Element shows the vital need to enhance creativity and innovation by thinking differently about human resources and imagination. It is an essential strategy for transforming education, business, and communities to meet the challenges of living and succeeding in the 21st century.
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Not Great
- By Samantha on 04-02-12
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The Contemporaries
- Travels in the 21st-Century Art World
- By: Roger White
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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From young artists trying to elbow their way in to those working hard at dropping out, White's essential audiobook offers a once-in-a-generation glimpse of the inner workings of the American art world at a moment of unparalleled ambition, uncertainty, and creative exuberance.
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Mispronunciations Spoil This Reading!
- By Jenny Jenkins on 06-17-15
By: Roger White
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Rescuing Socrates
- How the Great Books Changed My Life and Why They Matter for a New Generation
- By: Roosevelt Montás
- Narrated by: Roosevelt Montás
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Many academics attack the very idea of a Western canon as chauvinistic, while the general public increasingly doubts the value of the humanities. In Rescuing Socrates, Dominican-born American academic Roosevelt Montás tells the story of how a liberal education transformed his life, and offers an intimate account of the relevance of the Great Books today, especially to members of historically marginalized communities.
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Excellent defense of a crucial part of education
- By Nom de Guerre on 01-24-22
By: Roosevelt Montás
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The Geography of Genius
- A Search for the World's Most Creative Places from Ancient Athens to Silicon Valley
- By: Eric Weiner
- Narrated by: Eric Weiner
- Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Geography of Genius, acclaimed travel writer Weiner sets out to examine the connection between our surroundings and our most innovative ideas. He explores the history of places, like Vienna of 1900, Renaissance Florence, ancient Athens, Song Dynasty Hangzhou, and Silicon Valley, to show how certain urban settings are conducive to ingenuity.
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Very, very disappointing
- By Tamara Greer on 06-08-16
By: Eric Weiner
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Sit Down to Rise Up
- By: Shelly Tygielski
- Narrated by: Shelly Tygielski
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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The practice of mindfulness is most often touted for its profound mind, body, and spirit benefits. Shelly Tygielski here shows that mindfulness can also be a powerful tool for spurring transformative collective action. In a winning combination of memoir, manifesto, and how-to, Tygielski shares her evolution from a Jerusalem-born child of traditional Sephardic Orthodox parents to a middle-class American suburban youth who questioned her faith to a young executive in corporate America.
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Relevant and Motivating
- By Shelly G on 07-01-22
By: Shelly Tygielski
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What listeners say about Why We Make Things and Why It Matters
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ian
- 02-15-16
Annoying
This book annoyed me.
It would have annoyed me less if the "We" in the title was changed to the "I" that it should have been. Then I wouldn't have touched it with a bargepole.
I make things and am going to flatter myself that this gives me at least the right to hold an opinion.
One of the advantages that I have discovered of making things is that it brings me more into contact with other people who make things and , my experience is, that we all do it for different reasons.
This guy appears to do it because it lets him adopt a superior view of his own importance. I do it because it lets me avoid having to deal with people who adopt a superior view of their own importance. And because I can spend all day listening to audiobooks.
For every maker out there, there is a mix of reasons for the choice. This book, despite the "we" of the title, is interest in just one of them. And it is one of the less interesting ones.
I didn't expect woodworking but I think I hoped for something just a bit less self centred and pompous
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7 people found this helpful
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- Rosanne Font
- 12-16-15
Making Things...
Mr Korn chronicles his woodworking career in biographical form while asserting the value of artistic creation & finishing the timetable with the altruistic generation of a non-profit school for furniture makers. As a dabbling woodworker myself, I enjoyed this effort of explanation of why we make things, it seemed a bit narrow in scope, solely biographical, and thus less rewarding for me, because the term "things" encompasses a much greater genre than handicraft. Perhaps I would've enjoyed it far more if the reference photos could be included as a .pdf file to the audiobook.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Erin Strehlo
- 11-23-17
More autobiography than I was expecting
I chose this book thinking it was going to be a philosophical look at why people create things. Instead it was an autobiographical look at one person’s journey that included his woodworking craft. Just not the book I was hoping it would be.
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- robert
- 05-04-17
Finally a working book for people who think why
If you could sum up Why We Make Things and Why It Matters in three words, what would they be?
Woodworking soul food
Any additional comments?
Finally a woodworking book that translate into an audible book. I enjoyed every word of this adventure. It is about Peter Korn but I am glad I was able to peek into his path. If making things is more than the sum of their parts to you, this is a great book.
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- Casey Workman
- 02-24-20
Really great
For anyone creative. From the angle of a furniture maker but lots of good info. Highly recommended!
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- M. Morrow
- 10-17-18
This book spoke to my spirit
Definitely worth your time. Wow. The author articulates things that I didn’t know were inside of me but when he said them my heart leapt in agreement.
I intend to listen to this regularly.
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- Amazon Customer
- 07-12-23
Great read
Overall great read. I came away inspired with fresh perspective. Can’t wait to give it a reread
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- Dave
- 07-27-16
Liked ideas, but didn't land for me
I really liked some of the ideas stated, but I left the book feeling like he was preaching to the choir a bit. Maybe that's unfair, but I feel like framing so much of it specifically through the woodworking and why he chose it / what it gave him really narrowed his larger points down too much. He referenced other books and discussions of the idea and I wish he expanded on those ideas more after framing his own experiences but it just left me wanting. Or at least wanting to go read some of the people he referenced to see if the hit home for me more
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- Kurt M.
- 07-12-17
Good read
This is a great autobiography of a craftsman who has inspired many others to pursue their passions.
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- Andreea Marin
- 03-05-17
Crafty
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes. It's short, it's informative, and it's reflective.
What did you like best about this story?
I liked the way this person found his vocation and spoke so admirably about that which he loved (in this case woodworking). There's nothing more wonderful than listening to a person speak about that which they are passionate about. I also found that him feeling lost in the world and coming to this hobby without expectations to become an expert was a wise attitude.
Have you listened to any of Traber Burns’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
I have not, I am sorry. I will in the future.
Any additional comments?
Because I enjoyed this books so much I got Nick Offerman's Clean Good Fun and the Canoe audiobook. I didn't know how much I enjoyed men talk about woodshops until I discovered this book at a daily deal.
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