The strength of natural challenge is, of course, a viable force; most evident in the proliferation of sports; what caused me climb to the top of a redwood tree. For root cause, however, I perceive the force of living trade, to work wood or metal or soil, to be an immanent force of man's nature; an applied subconscious mental event with no connection to historical fact.
Profit as a motivational force does more to negate the propagation of living trade than to reinforce man's knowledge and understanding of the basic material. Industrialization induces a narrow view of the trade subject; while, the introduction of modern machines, which require modern materials, separates man from the perception of his own potential.
I am not sure what you mean here, but let's emphasize skill. Demonstrable skill is individual expertise with tool and technique, where a man's common sense and manual dexterity will prevail; whereas, production efficiency is a mental exercise, knowing what you want to build and planning each step well in advance of your feet; this, too, is cumulative skill, most evident in the finished product, but undoubtedly the least appreciated.
Well, you're talking to the guy who has been accused of being a legend in his own mind on this very thread; I suppose my accepted wisdom is not to be overly wise in approaching living trade. No man is the master; working wood is an infinite phenomenon, the more you know the more you realize you know very little. But, I perceive the pursuit of living trade to be a life's journey.
Ironic, indeed, if you define circuitous as a neanderphobe with more planes then brains. The problem with today's technology is that innovation is the provenance of machine and tool manufacturers, computer science, and the industrial complex...none, of whom, work wood. Two decades ago, I located shelf standard products that would have provided retrofit to the standard tablesaw for numerical control of fence and the height/angle adjustments of the blade...for less than a thousand dollars. Yet, today, no standard tablesaw, at any price, is fitted for these basic functions. Still, the most intricate detail in wood can only be accomplished with a single edge of steel...
A man in pursuit of living trade is at peace. You might peruse the Four Ages in the Metamorphoses of Ovid for the effects of technology on man's peace from the man who lived his trade two-thousand years ago. In defining living trade, and bringing to light the underlying resource that is the driving force of living trade, perhaps, we may witness a renaissance in man's inherent capability to work wood... As always, Rob, you have provided opportunity...thank you.