The Baker's Son

I was about to park in front of the local grocery store I regularly go to when I noticed a new place of business two doors down to its left that must have opened only recently because that was my first time to see the sign that says, "The Baker's Son".  I hesitated to even look in because what need did I have from a baker's supply store as I imagined it to be such a place. But I went in anyhow.

As I opened the door I was greeted with a distinctly unmistakable aroma of freshly baked bread and the sweet smell of pastries and muffins wafting through the room. It was just a room indeed. For a place of business it looked that way because it was just a small section of what used to be a bigger place  called "Tuesday Morning", which was a national chain that had since closed.  The rest of the building had been sectioned off to other businesses, one of which was the grocery store I originally wanted to go to.

Well, I wasn't able to resist the freshly baked bread and two kinds of pastries. As I was paying I asked the cashier, in a joking manner, "So, where's the baker's son?"  She pointed at a young man in a baker's hat talking to a customer.  I approached as he turned around. He could not have been twenty five years old who had a light mustache and some indiscernible tattoo on his left forearm. I said, "If you don't mind, I'd like shake the hand of the baker's son".  He offered his hand and politely thanked me for coming in. He was very polite with his words and a willing smile on his face as he spoke.

This brought me back to just a few days ago. I was chatting with the electrician whom I hired to do some rewiring and to install additional outlets around the house. Conversation led to his sons (three) and about the kind of future young people faced these days. His eldest is in college for a future in accounting. He wondered about his son's prospect at accounting. He worried that such a career, like similar others these days, will succumb to AI or AI aided jobs.

He lamented that the  business owner he works for is having a hard time  hiring qualified, let alone experienced, electricians. He remembered years ago when he applied to this company about "rounding off' his then eight years of experience to ten because he would not have gotten the job.  Today the company owner hires people with just a year of experience.  Otherwise, he will not be able to hire anyone due to the scarcity of experienced people and the competition in hiring. This electrician told me about how often he had to re-work certain jobs done by  inexperienced co-workers who inevitably, and often, quit the grueling work, especially when it involved going to the attic or tight crawl spaces.

He added, "Don't get me wrong. We earn good money. I pay for my son's college, after all". He sighed and went on about his job as I excused myself.

Many decades ago, as a freshman in engineering school, I had a classmate who struggled with academics early on who made it through the first semester with minimum passing grades. By the second semester and towards the end he was failing in math and physics. He told me that switching majors the following year was one option he was considering. The following year I didn't see him anywhere at the university.

It was by my fourth year when I saw him again.  It was at the bike shop I brought my bike for some repairs. And there he was. He told me what happened. He decided not to re-enroll and told his dad that he wanted to work at the bike repair shop his dad owned.  His dad was at first disappointed but relented. 

He started making one-wheeled sidecars attached to 2-wheeled motorcycles as that new passenger conveyance was taking over the foot-pedaled tricycles; the latter actually replaced the horse drawn "carretillas" that were slowly fading away as a relic of pre-1940's era. He made the shop a more successful and lucrative business.  There was no question, he was making money while my classmates and I were still in school, trying to complete a five-year course in engineering.

That was not an argument for or against a college education.  It was an eye opener for the argument that a college education is not for everyone.  In fact, it is an argument for those with visions to veer away from something dictated mainly by convention that a college degree is the only pathway to success.  Michael Dell, Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs never finished college when they ventured into going into business.  {Zuckerberg did get his degree but only after twelve years since he dropped out}.

Before the industrial revolution in England, last names like Smith, Miller, Mason, and yes, Baker, were plentiful and to this day, of course. In fact, Smith was merely a generalized name to dedicated ones like Goldsmith, Blacksmith, etc. just as Mason was short for stone mason. We can surmise that villages would have identified craftsmen as John, the grain miller, or Tom the blacksmith, and so on and on. Later, their families merely took up their parent's "title" as their last names.

The bottom line is that young people are not to be pressured into a college degree if it is not for them.  There is always the issue of aptitude for academics, whereas a good academic foundation is something that often is predicated by the young person's interest early on in life, a supportive family, friends and the school system.  Today, particularly in the developed countries, there is a shortage of young people in the craft and service industry.  Plumbers and electricians,  mechanics, construction workers and those in farming and animal husbandry are in short supply even as wages have gone up considerably.

More importantly, these are jobs unlikely to be taken over by automation, AI or by robots.

Here is one other thing.  Apparently, it is notable that protesters at universities and public venues are for the most part made up of young people - students from the humanities departments - history and art majors, etc.  who apparently have in their agenda political and social causes that propel them to protest and engage in disruptions that sometimes lead to destruction of property.  These students pay high tuition money to enroll in these prestigious universities only to waste them in extracurricular activities that will not be worth much in their resumes in the future.  As a  matter of fact, they can be more detrimental than beneficial if future employers are made aware of those activities.

This is not an indictment against art, history and poli sci majors.  Graduates from these majors do have a place in society but the value of protests and demonstrations that lead to destruction of property is zero when all is said and done.  The value of a college education is likely wasted once these protesters who have in their record these kinds of activities come to the attention of future employers.

This brings me back to the baker's son.  I do not have information about his story but his place of business and the career he picked cannot be underestimated.  It is young men like him who early on decided to make something of their lives outside of academics but through a direct path outside of the corporate culture - that of the individual craft direct to the consumer.  That is because when we come to think about it, it is always about consumption by those willing to pay for goods and services provided by others.

We can look at it another way.  Everyone is a consumer of goods and services. Anyone reading this is a consumer of information brought on by a series of steps such as those from the producers of electricity, maintainers of the web network, etc.  The baker is a consumer of energy, raw materials, and business infrastructure but he has a short gap to cover between what he produces and the consumer of the product.  The plumber, the electrician and craftspeople have the shortest path between the services they provide to those willing to pay for those services.  It is not a trivial concept to consider.

Once we've considered all of these, we realize that a college education, the price we pay in advance for it in the hope of a career that is not cast in stone, must be weighed carefully by one and by all.

The Baker's Son is one of the multitude of people who everyday finds  a way to shorten the distance between the producer and the consumer.