CONCEPT
The Tailor's Hands
The image that anchors Lave's entire framework — the hands of a master tailor that know things his mind cannot articulate, and the question of what happens to that kind of knowledge in an age when the hands are no longer needed.
The phrase "the tailor's hands" appears in the opening chapter of On AI as a concentrated image for the kind of knowledge Lave's framework identifies as most valuable and most endangered. The master tailor who has spent decades in the workshop possesses knowledge that lives in his hands — a feel for the grain of cloth, a sense of how fabric will behave under the scissors, a tactile judgment about measurements and fit that no documentation captures. This knowledge is not articulable. It cannot be written down. It manifests in performance — the specific cut, the exact adjustment, the right response to the unexpected behavior of this particular piece of cloth on this particular afternoon. It is a form of tacit knowledge that was produced by the specific situated engagement the workshop provided.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The image operates on two levels. Literally, it refers to