Shokunin -noun Craftsman, artisan.

I’ve been reading Japanese Woodworking Tools: Their Tradition, Spirit, and Use and this has caused me to start thinking about the connection we have to the tools we use to live out lives. This post is a little jotting down of my current thoughts on the topic.

The author, Toshio Odate explains that a simple definition of the shokunin cannot express the deeper meaning of the word. The shokunin is much more than a exemplary artisan. Odate describes it as follows:

The Japanese apprentice is taught that shokunin means not only having technical skill, but also implies an attitude and social consciousness. [...] The shokunin demonstrates knowledge of tools and skill with them, the ability to create beauty and the capacity to work with incredible speed. The value of an object is dependent on a subtle combination of skill and speed [...] In short, the pride of the shokunin is the simultaneous achievement of skill and speed. One without the other is not shokunin.

Reading this book, I am slowly learning about the shokunin and the way they conduct themselves and their work. In light of this, as I reflect on my own work, I find it quite lacking in many areas. One of these is the connection we have with our tools.

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Ever wanted to change banks but then ditched the idea because it was too hard? When you change banks, you need to change a heap of other things too. Where your salary gets deposited, scheduled transfers, direct debits and loan payment to name a few.

Why couldn’t this be just as easy as porting your mobile number to another carrier? Joshua Gans has explored the “switching cost” of changing banks on his blog before and more recently. After thinking about how bank account numbers work, I landed on what might be a simpler solution. Simpler in theory but the challenge is to get the banks to implement it.

Firstly, let’s try to understand what these account numbers mean …

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