Finished reading: Durable Trades by Rory Groves 📚

Durable Trades is the needed cure for what Graeber described as Bullshit Jobs. Groves' narrative in the early chapters is a familiar one: The Industrial Revolution uprooted work from the home, created ever-more-specialized jobs to increase efficiency, and, as a result, has basically banished all thought of self-sufficiency from our minds. The majority of Groves' book, however, explores what he calls “durable trades”—roughly sixty or so trades that have withstood technological disruption and cultural change, even as they’ve morphed in all sorts of ways over the centuries. Groves scores each trade using five categories: historical stability, resiliency, family-centeredness, income, and ease of entry. A useful and eye-opening book.