Early in my career as a woodworker I had great disdain for the term “Master.” The very mention of the title had me rolling my eyes. Even today I find it a challenging idea to come to terms with, because there are several contexts at the root of this title and all of them have a sliding scale. In this day and age, it is exceedingly difficult to say what makes a master, so let’s not get stuck in that quagmire and instead turn our focus to mastery. Mastery is the never-ending drive to refine our skills. I think mastery can be recognized when we see it. I know I recognized it many times during my “apprentice” years, as well as today.
–Jarrod Dahl, excerpt from “The Quest for Mastery Through Production Work,” in Issue Four