CUSTOM EFFORT

May 8th, 2021

Sometimes the perfect fit doesn’t exist.  But we can spend an extraordinary time looking and waiting for it to turn up.  In a decent handful of these cases, it actually makes a lot more sense to figure out how to make it on your own.  Obviously this doesn’t work for everything: a new set of teeth, for example should best be left to a dentist.  But the perfect backpack? Or the perfect desk?  Or the perfect app?  

There are an unusual number of benefits when out comes to trying to figure out how to make something specifically for yourself.  The most obvious one is that if you succeed, you get exactly what you wanted.  The second is the skills learned along the way to make it happen.  And a sly third benefit is that you understand the real weaknesses of the final product.  By stitching together a custom leather backpack, one develops an intimate understanding about it’s construction that’s simply impossible with something purchased.  If the custom object breaks, not only are the reasons almost instantly understood, but the potential ways to fix it also pop up.  This is almost never the case with something store-bought, in which case we usually just throw it out and buy a new one and hope for the best.

However, it’s so much easier to be lazy.  At least it seems that way, but it’s worthy to wonder about two different lives that a person can live.  One where they have exactly what they have always needed, along with the added pride of achievement due to the fact that they’ve made the darn thing themselves, or another life, where a person is just constantly on the lookout for that one special thing they have in mind, nagged by the need, the idea for days, weeks, months, and even years.  Suddenly a little effort and learning doesn’t seem like such a tall task compared to the long subtle torture of waiting for what you want.