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The movie "Ford Vs Ferrari" is a great watch, and you can't help but root for the Ford team. It was an inspiring story in one light, while also being a tragedy when looked at from a different light.
Something that I've given a lot of thought to in my life is how our society seems to be in a perpetual race towards mediocrity. When I ws a kid there were still a lot of little independent stores on Main Street, one of them being Hummel's grocery, which was a little mom and pop grocery store that had been there for a few generations. Another favorite of mine was Jack Frost, a little combination candy shop and Greek diner where there was a spit of lanb cooking behind the counter and a little Ms Pacman table to waste some time on. They had awesome gyros. Then too, we had an honest to goodness drive in diner called Maxi's, where you could get a hot dog and fries if you wanted but the real attraction was the homemade root beer. And when my dad wanted lumber or other supplies for one of our numerous home improvement projects, he had 84 Lumber or Stambaughs to choose from and could get just about any domestic hardwood he wanted, in stock.
All of those places are gone. That town has a WalMart, a Home Depot, and a whole army of chain restaurants now. It's depressing.
When you examine the Ford Vs Ferrari story and stop thinking in American terms it's actually kind of horrifying. Ferrari was a family owned shop that produced hand made vehicles that a lot of people would describe as works of art. Ford mass produced cheap crap that was "good enough" and so made money beyond all reason. In so doing, they became the blueprint for decades worth of a race to the lower middle. Henry Jr had a bit of a chip on his shoulder about his company being viewed in that light already, even in the 1960's, so he spent outrageous amounts of money to humiliate the Ferrari company in the one arena where quality, hand made automobiles were still celebrated. The movie makes it feel like a David and Goliath story where Ferrari is Goliath and the noble American team led by David courageously take them on, for the good of all. It wasn't that. Rather, Ford was the harbinger of ChatGPT, coming to replace any last vestige of human interaction in modern society with mediocrity.
This is all analogy so far, but I apply the principle a lot. I like to make things. I'll never churn things out like a large company, but I don't want to. I'd rather use a hand plane and carve using my chisels, gouges and a wooden mallet than program a CNC machine. I like the feel, the sound, and the smell of the freshly cut wood, and the feel of my muscles remaining strong as I power the machinery. I prefer my fine Japanese saws to a loud and obnoxious table saw. I use power tools of course, but a little more sparingly. I'd rather be Ferrari.
And Gemini, in this story, is Ferrari by the way. Keep it small but keep it beautiful, people.
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