Specialist makers working hard to keep unique skills alive

Those are not symmetrical. It is lot easier to be a full time poet than be a violin maker. But of course you are more likely be a broke full time poet

From the grandparent link: When to replace your eye?

The tissue around the eye socket changes over time, and the eye can become scratched, even with careful maintenance.For these reasons you should replace your eye every three to five years, more often for children.

I can see that your question has already been answered, but I can confirm what it says. The cavity left after surgery changes over time, and the prosthesis, even if it is glass, eventually gets worn, leading to irritation. I presume that this is due to sand and grit in the air, which scratches the surface.

Additionally, you can have the ocularist recenter the eye prosthesis so that it better matches the orientation of your normal eye. Most eye prosthesis are approximate hollow quarter spheres resting on the eye musculature so that they can move in unison with the other eye.

Interesting, acrylic applied in multiple layers. I can see how this would be superior to glass from a manufacturing standpoint (easy to cast and layer), but my experience with acrylics is they scratch and aren't very durable. Perhaps that's another benefit - customers coming back more often for replacements.

I keep hearing about these magical systems that work like clockwork, but I also work in a bank and the reality is very different. In a void, yes, those systems are amazing. Now add all the other systems that have to be linked with that and things start to turn into a nightmarish situation. All the new systems have to be contorted, twisted and designed in weird ways to accommodate the old ones. Everything works a bit worse just because there are a minority of systems that don't know UTF-8 for example, or can't send more than 16 bytes in a field. Banks are very bad at IT. If you don't work in the trading part of it you are seen as a necessary evil. These systems are still with us because banks are very risk averse and because decommissioning a system in a bank can take decades.

They should just move to something more modern.

Tangential but sort of closely related...

15 years ago we needed to do crazy amounts of manual testing of an early mobile app on lots of different devices (we had ~2k separate device models in the office).

Our best hire ever in this area was this ~55-60 yo woman who had a background as a bank teller and had been selected to receive COBOL training by the Swedish bank who had employed her since she was young - they had done aptitude tests and recruited primarily from their existing work force.

She had the perfect combination of drive, curiosity and ability to express herself clearly and logically. She ended up working really closely and efficently with a bunch of developers in their 20s. She also helped so much in building a really nice, "wholesome" atmosphere in the office.

Any idea what it's like from a physical perspective to keep a mainframe like that running? Is there a point at which parts need to be custom made to replace anything that breaks or do they generally keep running with minimal physical issues?

Kinda makes me think about those old industrial engines that have been running continuously for 80-100 years.

> There's no telling if sievemaking might incidentally tie into a currently undiscovered mathematical formula that relates to the internal structure of a helpful molecule.

That reminds me of reading somewhere that, during the Apollo program, the engineers couldn't come with a good design for the knee joint of the spacesuit themselves. So they ended copying the design of some preserved medieval armor made hundreds of years ago, and it worked fine.

"Don't be evil" was better.

Also, training. There's a reason why this stuff is passed down through families: It's hard, it's hard to find a teacher, and the amount written in books about most specialized crafts is limited in quality and quantity.

Sorry, she no longer makes pieces for sale, but concentrates her energy on teaching.

you are right and I am seeing that -- however please consider the difference between England-style factory automation with economic booms, versus Florence Italy style high-skill, high value artisans. Near San Francisco and other places historically, the demand for very high value arts and crafts was closer to the latter. Land was never cheap here post-Spanish era.

We see rent as a massive expense for this innovation, but that isn't an inevitability. Consolidated landlords cannot recognize certain advantages that "Ma and Pa" owners will recognize like consistent (albeit lower) payments, tenants who are respectful of the building and grounds, or the fun of supporting a cool business.

Compare that to a place like Japan where the post-war distribution of land and smart zoning continues to cultivate a vibrant local economy, or venerable Italian cities where homes and businesses remain for centuries.

I don't condone decommodification of real estate or other acts of heavy-handed socialism, but there are laws that play against the "little guy" that must be repealed. Admittedly, every approach (including the Japan and Italy examples) has pros and cons, but many of us forget that there are alternatives out there.