> [!NOTE]+ Meta > Author:: Brett Crane > Reference:: https://www.economist.com/1843/2020/10/26/woodworking-with-francis-fukuyama > Date:: 2020-10-26 > Tags:: #warp > WeftLinks:: [[Creative value of craft]] > Claim:: [[Claim - Working with your hands stimulates mental development]] [[Claim - Makers are creative]] > [!SUMMARY] Summary > The eminent author Francis Fukuyama was a serious woodworker as well as academic. Ït provided a necessary balance to his abstract intellectual activities. ### Highlights Many philosophers seek out a material challenge to compensate for the mostly abstract they do as authors and thinkers. This helps ground their work. > In his academic work, Fukuyama had eminent mentors – Allan Bloom, Samuel Huntington, Paul Wolfowitz – but in woodworking he is entirely self-taught. He finds it “satisfying to make something that’s tangible, that you can use. That’s not something I can say about my other activities, writing articles, books, things of that sort.