I’ve always liked the idea of having tools; a set of instruments that define the work you do, a collection of useful things that you can carry around in a bag or tuck in a drawer, that you can point to and say, “Look! Those are mine, I use them to make things, or fix things, or discover things. They’re wonderful, aren’t they? Here, let me show you how they work.”

I don’t exactly have a profession to speak of, and the one I’m engaged in at the moment has distanced itself from the days of inky presses and tumbling cubes embossed with letters, from ribbons and wheels. Basically, I’ve got a computer, some paper, and a lexicon of pretty words left over from those days. (For instance, when text is placed onto a designed page, we call it “pouring” — like molten metal being poured into carved molds.)

So if you’re reading, and your trade has tools, will you tell me about them?