The Developer's Code

Chapter 9Pride

The other day, I read an op-ed piece in the New York Times called “The Healing Power of Construction Work.”^[19] In it, a carpenter from Middle America talks about how an unusual number of his hired construction workers were also in trouble with the law at some point. Some of his best craftsmen were drug addicts and convicted felons. Even a paroled murderer was in the mix.

He wasn’t suggesting that construction work attracted violent people. Instead, it provided some healing escape from their otherwise troubled lives.

There is a calmness when we work with our hands and a cerebral quality about using raw materials to build something. The carpenter’s hired hands didn’t treat construction work as merely a job. Rather, it was ...