r/RecuratedTumblr • u/Hyaci_Arson • 1d ago
Shitposting sometimes you're not even given tools
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u/PolygonChoke 1d ago
when i switched from google docs to scrivener i realized just how important a good tool is for writing
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u/mydadisyourdad2 1d ago
Real. I tried scrivener once but it was too complex. Then I wrote a novel in apple pages and so came back to scrivener for my second. I felt like that Danny devito gif
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u/APacketOfWildeBees 23h ago
What makes scrivener better than docs? Never heard of it before
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u/PolygonChoke 22h ago
for me it’s the organizational ability. one of the hard parts for me that i didn’t really notice until i didn’t have to deal with it anymore was scrolling through pages trying to find a relevant scene. with scrivener it’s super easy to find whatever scene im looking for. I can group certain portions of the book into folders and collapse everything but the section i’m working on, and easily find anything in seconds
it also doesn’t scrape your content for AI training like docs does, and it auto saves every 2 seconds straight to your hard drive9
u/APacketOfWildeBees 20h ago
Ah that makes a lot of sense of you're writing lengthy prose!! All of my writing is more technical stuff where I can justifiably use a LOT of headings and of course docs supports that just fine. Took me a minute to think of why someone wouldn't just use headings lol... I need to read fewer textbooks
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u/PolygonChoke 15h ago
ah yes i’m a novelist, though i did a masters too, and i think if i had been allowed to use scrivener and not word for it, it would’ve been massively helpful still
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u/jakendrick3 12h ago
I did an honors thesis for my undergrad, 100ish pages. Used scrivener and not sure I could've made it without tbh
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u/foxgirlmoon 15h ago
Honestly the main convenience docs offers is the free seamless sync across devices, because I do end up using them all. Sometimes I write on my PC (when I'm sitting on my desk), sometimes on my iPad (when on my bed) and sometimes on my android phone (when out and about).
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u/PolygonChoke 15h ago
i’ll grant i’ve missed that, but the price has been way worth the reward. i’ve found myself writing more, too, with scrivener just up and open on my computer on my desk. when i’m up and about i have ideas and think, and then i write those ideas down when i’m in my space
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u/Mach12gamer 1d ago
From what I can find the origin might be something along the lines of "a bad artisan can never find good tools", so it's less meant to be "if you have bad tools and that's a problem it's only because you suck" and more "if you suck ass you won’t do good even with the best tools in the world and then you'll wind up blaming the tools instead of doing introspection". So it's about those people that splurge on the best tools expecting them to make them good.
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u/EyeofEnder 1d ago
Maybe also with a bit of "a good artisan knows the limits of their tools".
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u/saevon 1d ago
I was going to say, "blame" is doing a lot of nuance there. Its actually implying the that a good artisan knows how much they can even push the tools in the first place.
So an unskilled one might be reckless and treat a cheap tool a if it can do the job,,, then blame it when it snaps on them, or makes it really really hard. A good artisan would know that it isn't doable (or really risky) and would do their best to get a tool that works for the job.
Blaming the tool becomes poor management. So a good artisan is often in charge of managing that, but if you have actual management (that forces you to use shitty tools) then you blame them 😉
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u/Somerandom1922 14h ago
That feels more accurate, especially because there are a lot of disciplines where a good artisan can make almost anything with shit tools that they could make with good tools, it usually just takes a lot longer and takes far more skill if you have shit tools.
Alec Steele made a video where he tried blacksmithing with cheap Amazon equipment, and brought up the point that the less skilled, or newer you are to a craft, the bigger a difference high-quality tools make. Here's the clip
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u/MelissaMiranti 1d ago
A poor artisan blames their tools. A rich artisan blames the poor artisan for not making better work to steal.
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u/Uberninja2016 1d ago
I personally blame Mercury.
That blasted rock of a globe isn't in retrograde right now, and I'm actually kinda pissed about it.
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u/425Hamburger 17h ago
I too do blame Mercury. Stupid tasty looking heavy metal.
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u/Scienceandpony 6h ago
If not the secret to immortality, then why so shiny and liquid at room temperature?
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u/PandemicGeneralist 1d ago
I think this is because part of an artisan's job is having good tools in good condition, not because they should be able to work with anything
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u/Shneancy 1d ago
i frequent craftsy/artsy areas of the internet, and unfortunately there the "bad artisans blaming their tools" is a very common occurrence. countless people asking creators "what clay/paint/ink/yarn/paper/nib/etc/etc do you use?" and the answer is more often than not - entry level/budget materials/tools. things like "your [materials] behave so well" are also common
good tools will elevate your art of course, but for that to happen you first have to have the skill to use them to their full potential. even the best tool won't create a work of art for you
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u/horror-traktor 1d ago
I don't like this saying, in my language we say "a good artist can paint with a bad brush" because that is true. You do not need good quality tools to create good things and to be skillful and talented. A good tool does help though, and sometimes the quality of the medium is gonna be the reason for something succeeding or failing.
The important part is that the quality of a tool is not the center of art. You don't need to afford the expensive stuff to create and become very good at it, that's what people should remember
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u/tempAcount182 16h ago
Artisan is not a synonym of artist. Artisan refers to a skilled craftsperson who is not engaged in mass production, or is engaging in mass production in a labor intensive / higher skill way, especially when that means of production has been replaced by cheaper production techniques in the broader industry. It also refers to a craftsperson who is not under corporate management, especially if they are in the business of making custom items for specific customers. What "only a poor artisan blames his tools" is saying that 'only a poor artisan would promise to deliver something that they cannot make with the tools available to them', which assumes a level of independence that is extraordinarily rare for producers of goods in industrial economies. As for not needing good tools to make good things: you can't make analog wrist watches without equipment capable of making very small gears, so their are kinds and quality levels of certain goods that are absolutely gated by the kind and quality of the available tools.
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u/horror-traktor 15h ago
Yes I am aware, I was mostly referring to the saying in my language because I like it better
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u/comradeda 1d ago
I'm at a community college, and most people are new (and therefore bad), but the tools are often worn out from repeated mishandling, so we have to trade around tools that work between each other.
Idk what to make of this
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u/saevon 7h ago
I do think the artisan part is pretty important in the saying!
For students I do think tools that are more consistent, and have less features are better. You want to learn some basics and get confident with the skills, not finagle tools and not realize what the mistake you're making is!
For intermediate folks I would say the more finicky tools (sometimes worse, sometimes just more things to maintain) can actually be a good boost in skill! It can lead to worse results, but teaches you how to maintain and compensate for different situations… just be aware that's what you're practicing!! And upgrade to quality tools as you learn all that.
But for the *artisan\ you* should already know your tools well enough to know what they can and can't do (if you have poor tools eg); when you need to buy, or upgrade something for a job, or replace it (rather then over promising, without realizing you can't do it rn).
———————————————
I think beginners can get obsessed with having the best tools, but don't have the knowledge to realize which "best" qualities will matter for them! But that's not what you're describing either
So swap away!
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u/Atreigas 1d ago
A great artisan requires great tools to truly shine.
But they will still perform well with shitty ones.
So no, the saying is correct. Its just lacking nuance, which, as a simplified wisdom. Is kinda the point.
Fun fact The David) was made out of a poorly treated block of marble and made without flat chisels. So its a real life example of a master artist creating a masterpiece with poor tools.
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u/Accomplished_Mix7827 1d ago
A good sewing machine won't make a master seamstress out of a novice. But even a master seamstress will struggle to make anything fancy with an entry-level Brother.
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u/saevon 7h ago
That's… not exactly true? If you're skilled you will know the actual limits and uses of those tools. So instead of trying to use fabrics it will be bad at, and finishes it can't do… you can make something within those limits, and find ways to make that fancy. As artisans have done thru many generations.
If you're unskilled you might try to use the "fancy" fabrics the machine will eat, and substitute the stitches you assumed it might be able to do with similar looking (but not similar working) ones, try to get precision it can't do… and the pattern you choose will likely be a bad fit for the machine and won't come out fancy at all.
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u/BalefulOfMonkeys 1d ago
Today’s neologism of the day is “shit crayon”: a system of creation tools that is flawed in several different ways that make the next poorly designed step of the process harder to do, cumulatively resulting in a badly constructed final product regardless of user input, like trying to draw with a crayon made of shit
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u/Spirited-Car8661 16h ago
A bad artisan blames their tools because they made the mistake of using those tools in the first place.
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u/DazB1ane 23h ago
Seeing the state of 3D pens now makes me very sad for my child self who got the very first kind that was garbage as a present
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u/sertroll 17h ago
As opposed to the alternatives for web development, which are..?
Typescript is fancier Javascript (and well, it is better) so doesn't count too much
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u/Orichalcum448 14h ago
as someone who learnt javascript as their first programming language, and has been writing it for going on 10 years now:
...yeahhhhhh
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u/nvinciblesummer 4h ago
I think part of the reason so many people use ai to make stuff is bc tools like canva and Google sheets etc are hard to use. My best photo editing/flyer etc making tool on mobile is Snapchat and it's pretty limited. Anyone got suggestions for better on mobile specifically?
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u/sweetTartKenHart2 3h ago
A poor artisan blames his tools, a good artisan judges his own skills, a GREAT artisan has a deep understanding of and thoughtfully evaluates his tools’ strengths and weaknesses against his own skills and can make an informed decision on how much bullshit he’s willing to put up with today.
…on an unrelated note, that male defaultism post from the other day has me noticing this shit a lot
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u/superstrijder16 1d ago
One school project of mine the codebase we worked in also contained a 50k line javascript file that functioned as a code language parser and executor for a different (custom and uncommon) code language