Everyone knows that feeling when you finally complete a long project or task. Most people seem to have an even greater sense of that accomplishment when they have done the task for themselves. With the availability of information through the internet, do-it-yourself (DIY) culture is growing fast. This is a great thing, as a surge of motivated individuals are learning, creating and sharing all around the world, but something very important is missing.

 

In this post, I’d like to begin to address a problem with the mindset behind DIY. With this reflection on a cultural and linguistic phenomena, I hope to make readers more presently aware of the cooperation that takes place on our planet.

 

Here’s the main idea:

In modern society, nothing is really done individually. This is has been true for quite some time.

 

As our technological capabilities grow, we are increasingly dependent on other individuals. Despite this, the vast collaboration of humanity seems to go unnoticed. Whether this is a failure of language, culture, or both won’t be speculated here. The point of this article is to simply remind readers of how connected we all are.

 

As a baseline, let’s define a “DIYer” in a simple way. This would be an individual with a new goal, who researches ideas related to the goal, and then applies this new knowledge to completing the goal. What specifically makes something DIY is that this individual accomplishes their goal with their own hands. In modern times, these projects will usually involve using the internet to find inspiration or to do research. They range from recipes for an omelet to the construction of home chicken coops, or from learning guitar to starting a business. The key elements appear to be that the individual learns about a skill or technique, works for their own benefit on the project of their choice, and typically in their free time.

 

I highly encourage every individual to be constantly learning, and applying their knowledge to create and innovate. This website and law firm should be an indication of that. However, during the year-long process of creating this virtual law office I realized there seems to be a vitally important perspective missing within the DIY mentality:

 

We cannot claim to do anything meaningful, entirely by ourselves, anymore.

 

The first part of this realization comes from Lawrence Lessig’s Free Culture, when he states that “the work of a lawyer is always derivative.” This makes perfect sense, as the actual law must be the foundation for any formal legal writing. Also, whenever a lawyer writes a brief or other legal document, there has to have been some other attorney, legislator, or judge’s writing preceding it. That’s why citations are important.

 

I then considered one of my favorite famous quotes:

“If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.“

 

A form of this quote was written by Isaac Newton in 1676, the idea of which he attributed to Bernard of Chartres (a twelfth-century French philosopher). Just citing the origin of the quote should be insightful of where I am going here…

 

Now consider the tools, components, and knowledge involved just in creating the device you are reading this post on. Then, as a thought experiment that isn’t too far off from being technologically possible:

What if every hand involved in a process left a digital print?

 

If you could inspect this hypothetical meta-data, what would you see? It wouldn’t just be the impact of the few individuals idealized on magazine covers. These people actually had a comparatively small impact, and this comes full circle with the main idea of this post.

Let’s simplify, and think of what goes into making just a single little copper wire inside of a smartphone. Raw materials were gathered, processed, planned, and made to specification before being shipped to yet another factory. There would be the markings of hundreds of engineers, designers, sales people, policy makers, transportation carriers, and laborers in countries all over the world. And there are certainly more components in an iPhone than just wires.

 

These people must have learned their skills from someone else, so when does the chain of causation within innovation get cut off? Even if it is a bit of a stretch, I believe the links connect well beyond any company and its employees, all the way back to the first computers, the first printed words, and the first tools used to shape matter to the needs of human beings. We have to crawl before we can walk.

 

After contemplating the connection of individuals behind an making internet capable device, how many people would you guess contribute to any DIY project?  How about to any blog, online store, or even this virtual law practice? I can only guess that the answer is in the millions, and this elaborate web of connectivity spans all of modern human history.

 

When we DIY, we are standing on the shoulders of humanity.

 

This is important because when individuals are seen as collaborators, they are regarded as equals. They are given respect and dignity. They are humanized. They become more than just information. This is how a global society is created and strengthened.

 

In closing, I think what should be applauded about the DIY movement is that individuals are motivated to use the resources available to them to create and innovate. This is essential to a free society. I do not want that behavior to change at all.

 

The problem is that the term DIY and the modern trend behind the idea don’t automatically carry an understanding of how this whole process was made possible by other individuals. It can be easily overlooked. This is problematic because all of our global issues can carry a similar argument. Just from food and transportation, countless unnoticed individuals impact our lives every day.

 

So, when you finish something, take pride in your work and your accomplishments. Just don’t forget that we need each other and those that came before us to do anything “for ourselves.”