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We seem to blindly be doing to our skills based what we have done to our crop base. Good line. Do we still have Diversity of jobs however we have lost diversity of attitude? We have lost the mavericks who take risks?

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I think we have - and the heretics, trespassers, pirates, and others who travel "Outside the Walls". In the 18th Century, "criminal conversations" was the metaphor used for relationships outside of marriage. I'm thinking of using it for conversations outside of the corporate contract :-)

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Two thoughts.

The need for specific jobs will always be there. There will always be a need for roofers, plumbers, electricians, etc. Whether are people to fill those jobs is a bigger question.

I'm injecting immigration into this conversation because the influx of young men from developing countries are not coming with those skills already learned. And our governments seem to think the problem will resolve itself.

As it seems, the resolution will be left up to entrepreneurs like Titan Gilroy (https://titansofcnc.com/pages/about-us).

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Love the Site - we need more of this. Artisans without Borders. I agree on the need for specific jobs - the question hanging over me is how we value them, connect them, and make them a force for community good, not just money.

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To value, we just need to answer what is the impact that makes a difference that this or that job creates. The recipient or the person hiring knows the value.

A friend of mine has had a number of problems with his house this year. He has had a difficult time finding people who are both capable and honest to do the work. He lives in a state that saw a large out-migration during COVID. As he has discovered, the cost of doing business as a tradesman has forced them to move to more desirable states. This is part of Titan Gilroy's story. He left California and moved his entire operation to a town north of Dallas. The lesson is artisan value is not an abstraction. It has to have value to the purchaser.

This brings us back to conversation. The most important question in any conversation is "Who do you know that I need to know? Would you introduce me?" My experience in buying a hundred year old house and the various things that need to be done to it has shown me that personal relationships matter more and more. Two examples: I purchased a washer & dryer on Feb. 4. Today, the installation is still not complete because of one part. The system is designed to avoid accountability to the customer., The company is failing because it doesn't understand or rejects POSIWID (Purpose of a System is in What it Does). I had a leak that was handled by my mortgage warranty. The warranty doesn't cover restoration of the damage from the leak. Through my sister, I found a guy who does a variety of tradesmans crafts who is going to help on this and other issues. If he can't do it, he'll know who can. Relationships and referrals are the hay of community.

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I shared Andy’s aphorism with one of my sons. His response was “POSIWID!” I said, “what’s that?”

“Purpose of a system is what it does.”

Having hay in the barn is the purpose of the farm. The purpose of a management system is to <…>. The purpose of a government is to<…>.

As we talked about this Richard, we decided that conversation is THE hay in the barn that we need right now. It feeds our curiosity, nourishes our minds, energizes is for work, unites us in purpose, and helps us to see what we must do.

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I've come to the same conclusion on conversation. It's the soil in which we grow. So simple, yet to so abused....

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