What the apprenticeship was actually teaching

Walt ran his crew with two rules: measure twice, and never let a man leave a job site embarrassed. I thought the first rule was the trade and the second was manners. Took me a decade of running my own crew to realize I had it backwards.

Wood forgives a bad cut. You buy another board. But a young guy humiliated in front of the crew on a Tuesday? He either quits the trade or spends twenty years passing it on.

Walt was building carpenters the way he built houses: so they'd hold up long after he was gone.