Craft is a Process

The homepage of my personal site says, “I care about crafting thoughtfully.” This is part two of my attempt to better define what that means.

Here’s my definition:

Craft is the constant process of refining technique and taste to carefully create meaningful work for someone else. (Sometimes that someone is your future self.)

Part one is here.

Craft is a constant process:

Ira Glass calls the difference between ability and taste The Gap. You have a vision for what you want to make, but not the ability to make it. The only way to close that gap is by creating over and over.

I love this perspective, only. I think The Gap never fully closes. The more you hone craft and technique, the more opportunity you have to develop your taste. The work and techniques to make that work get better and more refined, but so does your view of what is possible and what you want to create next.

If there were no gap, then the process of craft has ended.

It isn’t about the destination. It’s the process. Every piece finished is a remarkable thing that has been put into the world, even if it didn’t meet the vision you set out with. But the point of craft isn’t to make the best thing in the world (impossible), it’s to make the best, thing you know how to make right now with care.

Inevitably, we will look back on past work, and every “should have” and “would have” will become apparent. Instead of looking at that with some embarrassment, what if we looked at our past work with fondness for the intention put into it, the process of learning we went through.