Endorphin Craftsmanship (Part 5):Your Scars Are the Product — Why Perfection is Obsolete in the AI Era, And How to Fight.

What defines the AI era? I believe it is this: “The quality of the question equals the level of intelligence.” AI only grows as tall as the user’s intellect. Take bridge building.

Amateur Prompt: “Design a strong bridge.” 👉 AI: Generic textbook answer. (Useless).

Pro Prompt: “Designing a coastal suspension bridge. Wind speed 40m/s. Find the optimal damper location to prevent resonance. Here are the differential equations. Simulate and visualize with Python.” 👉 AI: Construction-ready engineering solution.

“How much you know” is irrelevant now. Anyone can get average answers. The core skill is pinpointing the actual problem. To ask this, theory isn’t enough. You need the grit of “tried it, failed it.” Text doesn’t convey physical pain or the feeling of “this sucks.”

Ask AI, “How do I build a Medovnik factory?” It suggests robot arms. Sounds plausible. Average but useless answers.

Because a veteran knows the truth. Buttercream melts above 20°C. Robot arms crush soft cake sheets. Conveyor belts ruin the stacking. If you know the real problems, you can corner the AI and narrow the solution. For example, To solve the problem that Medovnik cake’s physical properties were unsuitable for mass production and distribution, Marlenka gave the cake and cream a ‘chewy and cohesive viscosity.’ They lowered the water activity and added adhesiveness to the cream, thereby increasing its surface tension. If you have experienced this, the level of questions you ask the AI changes.

In other words, developing Meta Ability implies the necessity of proactive suffering for valid experience—constantly exposing oneself to various problematic situations and striving to solve them within a limited budget. A situation where resources are scarce and survival is at stake becomes the catalyst for creating overwhelming added value. Philosophically speaking, for bricolage to occur, one must continuously drive oneself into a corner where there is no other choice but to find a way. This is precisely why I emphasize the ‘1% of pain’.

(2) Chasing the 1% Pain Routine

To dive into reality, you must actively pursue 1% pain.

The core of Endorphin philosophy: Pain paradoxically brings comfort.

The life of a small business owner—embodying physical skills—fits this perfectly. It’s not about fighting for recognition. It’s about internal completeness.

To sharpen physical skills, routine is essential. But it is not mindless repetition. For a routine to become a ritual, it needs about 1% of pain — a small, intentional resistance. Being merely comfortable is not a routine, but laziness. Crossing that threshold is where a new self emerges, where new meaning forms, and where a new world begins.

But Most fail because they seek only comfort. Comfort breeds doubt: “Why am I doing this?” Without pain, the routine loses meaning. Doing nothing is always easier. Intentionally plant hurdles. Check your progress. Contact with the world begins by increasing resistance points. To enrich life’s meaning, you must move. This isn’t just endurance training. This small resistance keeps your senses sharp. It forces you to detect microscopic changes. That is how you build meta-ability.

(3) Mid-Level Knowledge Across Diverse Fields

The most critical skill in the AI era is “The ability to question.” Ironically, to craft precise prompts, you need “Working Knowledge” (mid-level) across various fields.

Why mid-level? Because AI digs up deep references in three seconds. Ten years of mastery? GPUs now identify those patterns instantly. Don’t spend 100 to get 120 in expertise. Spend 50 to get mid-level knowledge of 2 fields, combine it with AI, and generate 200. That’s value.

Let’s take the Medovnik cake I made and sold as an example. I didn’t need a degree in food engineering to improve it. I acquired this intermediate level of knowledge and terminology by repeatedly reading about three books on food science. When I first developed the recipe, I felt it lacked the necessary ‘viscosity and elasticity.’ Practically, I wanted to improve distributability, while artistically, I sought to implement a sense of resistance in the mouth to deliver the raw sensation of ‘chewing.’ My goal was to make the experience of my cake more intense and memorable. Through AI, I received hints that ingredients like tapioca starch, guar gum, or xanthan gum could achieve the texture I wanted. However, since those materials were difficult to source in reality, I conducted experiments substituting them with gelatin. Due to practical sourcing issues, I had to settle for spreading crushed walnuts between the cake layers to provide that chewing texture.

The core point is that with a combination of intermediate-level knowledge, real-world experience, and iterative testing/feedback, you can create objects that even food engineering professors cannot—with far less time and resources than it takes to master professional expertise. (In fact, those professors were actually my regular customers.)

But AI has a flaw. Since AI lacks a physical body, it cannot identify what the problem is or what needs improvement through its computational power alone. In other words, the ability to detect inefficiencies, discover new market opportunities, and create added value is uniquely human. This is because AI merely spits out words with high relevance within the most average and mundane contexts. Connecting unrelated experiences and knowledge to pinpoint exactly where a problem lies remains a human domain. This aligns with my long-held belief that AI is a tool for ‘producers,’ not ‘office workers’—and that in the long run, those who fail to become producers will be marginalized by AI. Please refer to the link below for the related article.

(4) Do Not Fear Trial and Error

You should understand by now. Meta-ability isn’t about a craftsman’s personal study. It is about understanding the customer’s context and perception structure. The key is for the producer, as an artist, to bring their unique style to life and create a rich, immersive experience for the customer. Therefore, you cannot learn the “Resistance of the World” by toying around in your bedroom. Real “Immersion” begins only when you sell your product for money. When a customer complains. When your survival is on the line.

To old craftsmen, trial and error was a “Cost.” Failure meant wasted materials and starvation. The virtue was to hide behind the master’s back and copy avoiding failure. But now, “Trial and Error” is the most expensive content.

Why? Because modern people have become cogs in a giant system. They lost their “Wildness.” They tap Excel sheets all day but can’t feel their physical impact on the world. Modern people have been stripped of the “Right to Fail.” They live safe, impotent lives.

That is why the masses crave a craftsman’s struggle. Look at the Korean hit show <Please Take Care of My Refrigerator.> Viewers didn’t care about a Michelin chef cooking perfect food with top-tier ingredients. They cheered when he sweated over “leftover chicken” and “canned ham.” When a perfect expert breaks down in a cramped kitchen—just like mine—and fights his way back up. Viewers feel a strange liberation watching that naked “Struggle.”

“Wow, even he struggles. But look how he solves it.”

This isn’t about getting a cooking tip. It is a process where castrated modern people vicariously recover their “Agency.” They realize, “I can do something with the trivial things around me.” For the modern craftsman, failure is not a shame to hide. It is the starting point of a human story that connects deeply with the user.

Do not hide the process. Do not chase perfection in the result. Show the error. Have the courage to not be afraid.

Necessary Element	Which Axis of Meta-Ability it Grows
Experience	Detecting the smallest unit of change
1% Pain	Increasing “Sensory Sensitivity” to detect change
Mid-Level Knowledge	Contextual connection ability
Trial & Error	Understanding user perception

3. The Relationship Between Meta-Ability and the Object

Democratic welfare states centered on the masses have advanced the manufacturing industry, while capitalism, in pursuit of mass demand, has significantly transformed both Meta Ability and the relationship with the object.

(1) What Merleau-Ponty and Matthew Crawford Missed

Both Merleau-Ponty and Matthew Crawford believed that skilled tool use extends the world.

“When we handle the world through tools, perception is entwined with action, and the tool extends the boundaries of the self. Through skill, we mesh better with the world. This process is immersive.”

But there is a difference. Merleau-Ponty placed the “Body using the tool” at the center. Crawford placed “Attention using the tool” at the center. I focus on Merleau-Ponty’s “Body.” Immersion doesn’t happen just by concentrating your brain. The world expands only when the body becomes one with the tool.

Take riding a bicycle. You don’t solve it by paying attention not to fall. You solve it by falling a few times. Your body reflexively turns the handle right before you crash. That is the expansion into the world of cycling. That is immersive attention. Attention forms after the fact. The body must learn the skill first.

To put it simply, steering a bicycle is not a matter of ‘observing’ the road and making a conscious judgment (Reflection) like, ‘I should turn 15 degrees to the right.’ Instead, your body has already become one with the metal frame of the bike, sensing and responding to the resistance of gravity pre-reflectively to prevent a fall. It is in this very space that immersion is maximized. Attention is something that emerges after the fact; you don’t achieve immersion simply by ‘trying’ to pay attention. In this moment, you are not a ghost trapped inside a ‘brain’ or ‘attention,’ but a sovereign being who directly rubs against the world through the bicycle. Therefore, the process of embodying skills in the body is the true ‘intentionality’ toward the object. Merleau-Ponty’s logic here is crystal clear.

However, in the context of today’s era, capitalist technological advancement is shrinking the standing of the ‘sovereign producer. In other words, in the 21st century, you can’t eat by simply following Merleau-Ponty and training motor skills. In the past, tools were limited. The function of objects was probabilistic. The role of reducing complexity and increasing inevitability depended on physical ability. Individuals were versatile. They immersed deeply. They made good money.

But capitalism changed the game. Toolkits exploded. Physical ability shrank. Capitalism hates relying on “humans” with low mobility. Hand skills were replaced by machine tools. Objects were simplified to reduce interdependence and increase predictability.

Let’s look closer.

(2) The Extinction of Hand Skills

Robert Pirsig and Matthew Crawford were lucky to choose “Motorcycles” as their object. A high-end motorcycle is an object where “Stochastic Art” (Hand Skill) applies. For hand skills to matter, the object’s subsystems must be interdependent. Material complexity must be high. It must be unpredictable, incomplete, individual, and prone to failure. Because the function was “probabilistic,” the classical concept of the craftsman—obeying the sound of the material—could exist.

Butchery used to require “Hand Skills.” Feeling the knife slide between the fascia. Sprinkling water, wetting the whetstone, sharpening the blade. Precision leaving no knife marks on the cut. The moment a customer sensory-feels the “Craftsman’s Care.” Machines couldn’t do this because you had to see the grain and feel the meat. The craftsman could survive.

Now? We have auto-cutters, grinders, and membrane removers. Meat is just a “Part” fed into a machine and cut in a standardized way. The extinction of hand skills does not mean the end of the craftsman. It means the craftsman’s battlefield has changed.

(3) Objects Mutate into Portable Forms

Capitalism doesn’t fight craftsmen. It speaks only one language: “Portability.” Capital aims to make marginal production and distribution costs zero, expanding the market infinitely. To do this, it removes all “probabilistic processes” from objects. (If you are curious how bread, music, and water became portable and entered a cost-performance war, read the articles below. )

Here are the strategies:

-1> Modularization of Matter:

Independent architecture allows simple assembly and part swapping to achieve function.

Example: Japanese Ramen. A chef boiling pork bones for hours, pulling handmade noodles, emulsifying sauce 👉 Replaced by Packaged Powder + Hot Water + Dried Noodles.

Example: Smoked Flavor. High-skill work involving wood chips and steam 👉 Replaced by Liquid Smoke.

-2> Standardization of Experience

Example: Coffee, Chicken, Burgers. Build massive commercial spaces to dominate the environment 👉 People gather there, satisfied by the standardized quality of food and goods. By diversifying products and accelerating release cycles, they create the illusion of novelty and detail.

Example: Drive-Thru. Starbucks coffee and bread eaten in a car or at home destroy the reason for it to be “Starbucks.” The barista’s intention and the store’s vibe vanish. Convenience increases; sales explode.

-3> De-skilling of the Object

Example: Developing photos used to require a craftsman. 👉 Now, you press a button (Black Box), and the result pops out. This is the “Portability where anyone becomes a producer (but without depth)” that capital desires. As objects shift to portable forms through these strategies, the craftsman who handles complexity loses ground.

I would like to emphasize once again that the democratic welfare state, rather than capitalism itself, has been the driving force behind these changes in manufacturing technology. In an aristocratic society of the past, capitalism would not have developed technology in this manner. As capitalism simply moves toward the highest purchasing power and maximum capital efficiency.

In contrast, a democratic welfare state inevitably prioritizes the mass production of lower-quality goods over the small-scale production of high-quality items. To distribute products of a reasonable quality to everyone equally and rapidly, one has no choice but to erase individuality and drive the marginal cost of production down to zero. For producers, this means we have entered an era where aura can no longer be created through performance alone. Producers can no longer survive by classically pursuing functional perfection; instead, they are pressured to create subjectively meaningful experiences for their customers. Currently, the ‘Endorphin Craftsmanship’ series defines this capability as Meta Ability and explores its characteristics from various perspectives.

(4) The Modern Craftsman Must Build Object Structures Impenetrable to Industrial Capital: Adding “Presence”

Industrial capital pushes for portability. To resist, the modern craftsman must attach “Presence” and “Life Experience” to the object.

In the previous article, we explored how to manifest an Impressionistic sense in objects through Meta Ability. Now, let us examine the concept of Presence (Dasein/Presence). Both are identical in that they allow us to experience the ‘present’ longer and more richly. The reason Presence is crucial is that it transports us to a specific time and space.

Particularly in a commercial context, rather than merely focusing on space styling by plausibly arranging hallucinatory signifiers, a more powerful sense of immersion is created when the producer’s (owner’s) actions are visible. To use music as an analogy, it is the same reason why going to a concert is more ‘special’ than listening to a CD. This is because it powerfully severs the context of mundane time and space, ‘throwing’ us into an extraordinary new world.

According to Heidegger, the sense of one’s presence in the world is grasped through ‘friction’ with the physical world—seeing with one’s own eyes and hearing with one’s own ears. As the synchronization between our senses and the mise-en-scène of that special world becomes more sophisticated, our neural circuits expand, making us feel as if we have been reborn in a different world. (Note: Please refer to the next article for a discussion on how the music industry shifted toward Presence to create added value.)

To help you better understand this sense of Presence, I have envisioned two specific scenes.

Now, go to a Japanese artisan’s sushi bar. The craftsman dismantles the tuna right there. He makes sushi. He risks failure; his survival is on the line. He explains the fish’s characteristics, size, and cut. He explains why the knife moves that way to improve taste. Because it is Context-Specific, the movement sublimates into a sacred gesture. The knife might cut his hand. Blood might flow. Customers feel that authenticity and weight. The craftsman jokes. He adjusts the slice thickness and rice grains to fit the dining situation. This is a Relational Gesture saying, “You are special.” Relational presence comes alive. People pay a premium for this.

Now, let’s compare this to a theme-park-style shop that claims to be a French bakery. While it insists on being French, there are no baguettes, and the croissants are overloaded with gaudy, colorful toppings that don’t even exist in France. A giant teddy bear sits in a designated photo zone, and the French words scribbled in chalk look cheap. Witnessing this scene, where lifestyle, mise-en-scène, and objects are completely out of sync, we experience a powerful sense of incongruity. This drastically diminishes the sense of Presence.

Furthermore, the decisive difference from an artisan’s sushi bar lies in the production site. We witness unskilled-looking staff haphazardly reheating frozen dough and merely adding decorations. Because this world is a ‘fake French bakery,’ we feel no meaningful friction. The more you know about French history and understand its society, the more these grotesque inconsistencies will stand out. Ultimately, you feel no presence in a new world; it feels exactly like a mundane space, or rather, so hallucinatory that it only evokes contempt.

(5) The Modern Craftsman Must Build Object Structures Impenetrable to Industrial Capital: Adding “Traces of Life”

Now, let’s take a closer look at how we can induce a perceptual shift by infusing a sense of Presence through the medium of ‘coffee. Perceptual Shift is an engineering process of erasing the obvious function and filling the void with your own story.

Step 1: Create a Context Vacuum (Erase Routine Function)

Every object is born with “Common Sense Use.” Coffee is “Caffeine fuel for workers.” The craftsman intentionally erases or distorts this obvious context. Place a familiar object in an unfamiliar time and place. The object temporarily enters a “Vacuum of Meaning.” The audience is confused. “If that’s not for waking up, what the hell does it mean?” Imagination begins here.

Step 2: Inject a Hint of Desire (Create Aura)

Into this vacuum, cleverly insert a hint that stimulates “Desire.” Take a coffee ad. The coffee isn’t on an office desk. It’s in a weird place. Brad Pitt rides a motorcycle through rough nature, returns to a quiet home, and grinds beans. Remove the “Coffee = Energy Drink” context. Attach a hint of desire: “Perfect Silence and Leisure” after rough labor.

Step 3: Transfer of Sensation (Bring it to My Life)

Here, the craftsman’s meta-ability must shine. It’s not just setting a mood. Capture the “Micro-changes in sensation”. The rough sound of grinding beans. The steam rising when hot water hits. The heavy texture touching the lips. This detailed sensory direction tricks the consumer’s brain. It creates the illusion that Brad Pitt’s leisure will be reproduced in “My Daily Life” when I drink this coffee. Through this, ordinary coffee is reborn with an “Aura that looks mysterious and different.”

Therefore, a coffee shop owner must think: Am I selling an “Energy Drink”? or am I selling “The chance to be a relaxed alpha male”?

You must add traces of life to become the latter. Ultimately, the craftsman’s survival method isn’t selling goods. It is proposing “Irreplaceable Moments of Life” through goods.

Regarding cafes, there are also examples in an Eastern context. Japanese merchant Sen no Rikyu shifted a thatched hut and old teacups into the context of “Zen.” He sublimated tea procedures into a Ritual by assigning Zen meaning to them. The quiet forest, the sound of the stream, the neat monk’s robe—the moment customers face these, they are insulated from daily context. By repeating key movements (grinding tea, pouring water) in slow motion, he breathed “Zen Life” into them. Drinking tea brewed by a Zen master injects “Zen” into my life context.

If you are interested with Sen no Rikyu’s Strategy, [See: Wabi-Sabi Is Not Interior Style — It’s Experience Design: The Hidden Logic Small Businesses Miss (Part 1)]

Conclusion:

A craftsman must not stop at polishing technical expertise. CNC machines and AI can mimic that now. To avoid competition with industrial capital that turns everything into portable forms, you must ponder how to attach Life Experience and Presence to the object itself. This is a necessary survival strategy for small businesses and creators. I will continue to research and post about this on the blog.

[Table: Logic of Capital vs. Survival of the Artisan]

Category	Industrial Capital	Endorphin Artisan
Goal	Maximize Portability	Maximize Presence
Form	Modules, packs, standardized goods	Dismantling shows, live, custom
Experience	Same taste, anywhere, anytime (Starbucks)	Experience possible only Right Here, Right Now (Old Store)
Value	Cost-performance & Convenience	Aura & Accumulation of Time
Weakness	Replaceable (Cheaper alternative ends it)	Does not aim for scale (Prioritizes Irreplaceability)

4. Conclusion

Polishing technical expertise is no longer enough for the modern artisan to survive. Industrial capital maximizes portability. It uses modularization and automation. It builds structures where hand skills are obsolete.

Therefore, the artisan needs Systemic Thinking and Phenomenological Sense (Meta-Ability).

This article discussed how to secure that ability. We also covered how industrial capital mutated the very nature of the “Object” into a portable form. To dodge this competition, the artisan must attach “Life Experience and Presence” to the object. This builds a “Survivable Structure” impenetrable to capital.

Look at the Tuna Dismantling Show. We must harmonize Lifestyle, Mise-en-scène, and Object to powerfully pull the customer into a new world. Through the ‘friction’ of this new world, they experience a sense of Presence distinct from their mundane daily lives. This is what it means to produce like an artist.

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1. Introduction

2. How to Secure Meta-Ability

(1) Experience is King: It’s Not “You See What You Know,” It’s “You See What You Go Through.”