A friend and I independently came to the same slightly painful conclusion: practical knowledge has become fragmented.
In the past, a lot of knowledge transferred naturally between generations. Children worked alongside parents and other adults. They watched, helped, made mistakes and were corrected.
Today we outsource more and more skills to services.
We have learned how to pay someone to solve the problem, but in the process we have also surrendered some of our agency.
I have nothing against paying for someone's time and skill. Quite the opposite.
But I hate black boxes. I want to understand.
How do you create and control a fire?
How do you cut grass with a scythe, without electricity?
How do you change oil on a motorcycle?
How do you solder?
How do you chop wood properly with an axe?
The knowledge still exists. It is just scattered across many people.
So we decided to start organizing regular hands-on workshops.
Some people may come because they genuinely want the capability. Others may simply want to experience what it is like to split wood with an axe or repair something with their own hands.
Either is fine.
But the principle is:
you don't come to watch. You do the thing.
The groups will be small — no more than about 10 people.
And yes, we will pay for the workshops.
I want knowledge to have explicit value, and payment also creates commitment. Free workshops are very easy to sign up for and very easy not to take seriously.
But there is another side to it:
every one of us knows something that somebody else doesn't.
I can teach electronics and repairs. My friend can teach basics of martial arts. Someone else can teach painting Warhammer figures. My father has already agreed to teach us how to use a scythe.
So if you participate actively and later teach something useful to the others, you can earn money back into the system.
Money circulates.
Knowledge accumulates.
I call this a small circular micro-economy.
There is one more part I care about.
We want to record some of these skills on video — especially practical knowledge that currently lives mostly in someone's hands and may stop being transmitted when that person is gone.
Not polished influencer content. An archive.
Demonstration. Explanation. Beginner tries it. Master corrects the beginner.
You shouldn't have to rediscover solved knowledge from zero.
This is deliberately not a mass community. We will personally vet participants. My primary criterion is simple: I want people who will take the commitment seriously.
It will happen physically, not through Zoom. Homes, garages, gardens, workshops and other suitable places nearby.
If this sounds like something you would genuinely participate in — either because you want to learn or because you have something worth teaching — let me know.
