“It’s a poor worksman who blames his tools” has always been complete nonsense. No-one complains about imperfect tools faster and louder than a master. A master will yank a cheap or damaged tool out of your hand and yell at you for not blaming it yet
Cheap, lousy tools come from middle managers who don’t know how to do your job. Blame the hell out of poor tools and those who demand you use them
@0xabad1dea the poor craftsman blames his tools, the master just uses good tools in the first place :)
Oct 22, 2026, 2:34 PM@0xabad1dea But for the master craftsman that conversation is in the distant past.
It's taken me a long time to understand that the phrase "it's a poor craftsman who blames his tools" is not a simple sentence, but that it speaks to an understanding that a skilled craftsman chooses the best tools they can carefully, takes proper care of them, and takes responsibility for what those tools deliver.
@mhoye @0xabad1dea this speaks to a particular experience of a craft, though. the folks I know who work in the trades have _voluminous_ vocabularies of expletives for showing up on job sites with shit equipment
@mhoye @0xabad1dea "Taking proper care of tools" is key.
The best tool will crap out on you eventually if you don't treat it well.
@0xabad1dea It made sense back when a lot of craftsman were expected to make their own tools, so the quality of the tool was a reflection on the craftsman.
Today, yeah, a lot less sense
@0xabad1dea I'm with you!
The literal phrase means that a poor craftsperson blames their tools *for the craftperson's poor results.* The saying doesn't mean don't complain about tools, it means a craftsperson is accountable for the outcome and therefore takes responsibility for choosing and/or replacing their tools and using them well.
@raganwald @0xabad1dea Skilled workers exchange knowledge about tools, about what tools are fit for what tasks, by complaining about tools that are not fit for their tasks.
@foolishowl @0xabad1dea Really skilled workers complain about their tools incessantly... To the managers imposing poor tools on the workers.
@0xabad1dea I understand that saying as finding excuse for shody work. A master will probably not make shody work so they have no reason to blame their well maintened tools
@0xabad1dea Yeah, whenever I hear someone say that, I always add: it's a poor worksman who blames his tools, because a good worksman knows how to choose his tools. So if he blames his tools, he blames himself.
But if the tools are forced upon you, well, then you're blaming your manager. Rightfully so.
@tarmil @0xabad1dea I spend the majority of my time building new tools with which to fix existing tools tools with which to calibrate and diagnose other tools... there's an original problem at the bottom of the stack somewhere but it's as much an excuse as anything.
Then an externally imposed deadline gets addressed with duct tape and a rock. ("We hit the ship window!" "Like a bird.")
@0xabad1dea I always saw it as "The poor workman will deliver poor work and blame it on the tools, a good workman will just get better tools"
Oct 22, 2026, 3:15 PM@0xabad1dea Worse: managers and fellow workers - especially in #Capitalism systems where there's no such thing as 'too much' - are empowered to know which tools are faulty, and which are not, and keep you uninformed so they can have a more direct path to usurping your value, for their own.
#AbuseOfPower at scale
Oct 22, 2026, 3:25 PM@0xabad1dea a lesson I learned a while ago is that if you are rummaging in the tool chest for "the good screwdriver" then you should probably buy another quality one and throw out all the bad ones.
@th
But how to rank your tools?
@th @0xabad1dea You have kids?
I inherited 7 boxes of tools from my father, and was too always searching for "the good screwdriver".
So I bought 3 small toolboxes and sorted the tools, only keeping what I would actually need -- to fix the bike, to install a lamp, etc.
I cleaned up all the tools I wanted and donated the rest.
Each kid got a toolbox when they moved out.
Now, when I visit them, I can to my father-thing, because they've got the right tools.
And I don't have to search in vain.
Oct 22, 2026, 5:05 PM@th @0xabad1dea @quixoticgeek I have no idea what you are talking about
Oct 24, 2026, 8:18 AM@th i raged in a way i rarely do a couple days ago when at like 445pm i needed a #0 flathead, saw a wiha in the drawer, and on closer inspection the tip was so hosed i had to file it down to get it to fit a screw. so much stuff is going straight to the garbage can monday morning. @0xabad1dea
Oct 24, 2026, 6:41 PM@th @0xabad1dea CHRIST yes. I did learn this but I wish I'd learned it earlier. It took me WAY too long to figure this out.
When you reach the point that your tools restrict you more than your (lack of) skill, it’s time to get better tools. Knowing which situation you’re in is why we need teachers/mentors to guide us.
@0xabad1dea Agreed. Taking into account some people are tools, this makes even more sense.
@axol_otleon
Oh yes, this makes me think of Donald Trump & how he always blames others (his tools) for his failures.
@0xabad1dea I think this might be more true today than long time ago. And likely for the same reason also: For the master would have seen the tools are not good and sharpened them first. There might be more depth to this phrase than is immediately apparent. 🤔
@0xabad1dea This. 💯
@0xabad1dea I think you're misunderstanding what the word blame means. and your example, the master Craftsman isn't blaming anything. they are correcting a problem. The poor craftsman doesn't correct the problem, they blame it afterwards.
@0xabad1dea A related fallacy is that cheap, poorly made tools are fine for novices, and that only experienced pros need the good stuff.
If I don't have experience with some task, and have no idea what I'm doing, I need all the help I can get. The last thing I need is introducing an "are my tools misbehaving?" variable. A pro would at least have a chance of knowing how to compensate.
Oct 22, 2026, 4:42 PM@mattblaze @0xabad1dea Yes. The right differenciator is not quality, but the features. The novice tool must be good at what it does, but it's OK if it can do less. Simpler and better value, not straight up worse.
@0xabad1dea The best tools make learning the best technique easy; they are transparent to the practitioner's skill. Bad tools are an opaque filter to the practitioner's skill. They make it hard for a novice to learn good technique, and leave inexperienced practitioners blaming themselves for the tool's poor results.
@0xabad1dea OTOH, a complete tool always blames his workmen...
I have worked hard to make sure that anyone learning to play guitar gets to learn on a good guitar. There is nothing more detrimental and discouraging than trying to learn to play guitar on a piece of garbage.
@0xabad1dea I can see from reading the comments that lots of people spend a lot of time thinking about this stuff, which is good because it's important.
My own two cents is that it's about being the type of person that makes excuses vs the type of person that gets shit done.
Cause whatever it is that's limiting you, you get to choose between treating it as a problem to solve or as an excuse to under-deliver time and time again.
Oct 22, 2026, 4:51 PM@0xabad1dea I've internalized the not blaming your tools idea within my academic work. I don't blame the tools (students). I am not responsible for how they are when they enter my program, I am responsible for them when they exit.
Our tools are chosen primarily on the basis of them having a "management dashboard".
@0xabad1dea It is a poor workman who blames his tools because the master doesn't have any crappy tools left.
@0xabad1dea JFYI: “to blame” and “to complain” are not synonyms. They have different meaning. As a result, they are not interchangeable.
@mudasobwa wow, I'm so glad that men I don't know are here to explain what "words" are to me, I'm a just silly little girl who doesn't understand my own post and not a fucking engineer making a point about fucking engineering
@0xabad1dea critically, it's a poor workman who blames his tools *and still keeps using them despite adequate opportunity to acquire better tools*
@0xabad1dea That saying isn't about tools though, is it? It's about refusing to be accountable.
Oct 22, 2026, 6:09 PM@0xabad1dea You still didn't get the extra RAM for the remote desktop system then?
If I recall correctly, that was you/your company... Could be wrong though!
@greem hahahahahahahahahahaha *sob*
Oct 22, 2026, 6:12 PM@0xabad1dea We'll be right back after these words from our sponsor, Employee Trauma Support.
@0xabad1dea I once tried learning to play the saxophone, on a malfunctioning saxophone. It was frustrating flailing about experience, and I only succeeded after it got repaired.
@0xabad1dea IMO the saying makes sense under the assumption the worksman's tools are actually fine (implying the worksman doesn't know how to use them/how to do the job properly and is redirecting blame)
But plenty on this thread including yourself have already mentioned how this statement immediately falls apart when that assumption is false 🤣
Like when a harbor freight C clip tool I had bent before it released the clip... 🤣🤣🤣
@0xabad1dea in my case, my manager does know how to do my job, but only with the lousy tools he used to do it with, so that's what I'm being trained on and it's my fault if I do it wrong.
@0xabad1dea Is this about the PHP? ;-) Anyways, I remember when a "head of engineering" pushed DynamoDB no matter what. It ended costing the company millions on retarded development (in all meanings of that word) and, later, on exploding usage fees. And, then, never-ending migration.
Oct 22, 2026, 7:40 PM@0xabad1dea You never want to be a master.. Beginners mind yall
@0xabad1dea Reminds me of the adage that to attract and retain skilled people you need to provide ”sharp tools and interesting problems”.
@0xabad1dea I think the meaning is a good worksman is his own boss and knows what tool is good and bad, doing a bad job and blaming the tools as a way out of accountability, not that tool quality isnt a factor. Of course, everyone has a boss now and that boss has misaligned incentives.
@0xabad1dea 🎣 Quite a catch this time. 😄
@0xabad1dea Good lord, the literalism of some of the replies to this . . . A saying is understood by how it's used, not by quibbling about the vocabulary. (And I'm saying this as a quibbler.)
You're absolutely right—the saying, as generally understood by those using it, is simply wrong.
@0xabad1dea I think you will find that the saying comes from a period when an apprentice had to make his own set of tools as part of his training.
A master craftsman does not make his finest crafts by haphazardly bashing them together with twigs.
He uses a hammer.
I've used a great many programming languages, IDEs, and other programming tools in my 30 years, and I definitely have opinions and preferences about which of them are best and why.
@0xabad1dea I've had a lot of music teachers tell me "well, that might be ok today, but you should get a better guitar when you can"
I've never yet had one tell me "that's too much guitar for you"
@0xabad1dea Most of the times that I've heard that lately, the statement is coming from someone who sold the crappy tools.
@0xabad1dea, yes, anyone buying crappy tools for big money falls under: 'a fool and his/her money are easily separated.'
@0xabad1dea This goes for Roller Derby too
on the one hand, it's possible to skate in imperfect equipment, and someone just picking up the sport doesn't have a lot of discretionary income, but boots that fit and wheels that are the right hardness for the floor you're learning on will remove a lot of the barriers
if you can't plow maybe the wheels really are to blame
I used to be all "I should be able to skate in anything," but having switched to a lighter plate really did level up my game
Oct 22, 2026, 11:40 PM@0xabad1dea This confuses cause and effect. "The poor craftsperson blames their tools" means they don't admit their own incompetence. They would be an equally bad craftsperson even with good tools; that's what the proverb is saying - the tools are not the problem.
That a good craftsperson doesn't tolerate bad tools is a different thing. The good craftsperson will not do a bad job then blame the tool - the good craftsperson will not use the bad tool. But whether forced to use bad tools or not, the good craftsperson will take responsibility for the work. And may even be able to compensate with skill for the deficiencies of the tools.
So the saying is not nonsense at all, let alone "complete nonsense".
@0xabad1dea I think "blame" is doing all the lifting here. If you're building something and your tools aren't up to the task, then fix/improve/replace/etc them! Or if that's impractical for time reasons, own the result as the right tradeoff given the constraints. I urgently needed to open a can and had only a screwdriver-doable but nasty, the result was hacky, and I called it "best I could do under the circumstances".
Dropping verifiable facts @0xabad1dea
It's not long after you realize the above before the next epiphany hits you:
That shitty manager who doesn't understand your work flow and can't budget his time much less yours? He was put there on purpose. Not because he was supposed to be good but wasn't, rather he's there because his incompatancy is the seal of his loyalty to management.
Because he sucks he will never be an ally of the worker who's talents are being extracted. He exists in no-mans land, constantly under-estimating what's capable and being forced to excuse his purpose because he doesn't understand it either.
@0xabad1dea The right tool for the right job! https://youtu.be/7lqGwAkylI4