How to Read “When a craftsman changes many trades, he loses his skill”
こうじんすうぎょうをかうればそのこうをうしなう
Meaning of “When a craftsman changes many trades, he loses his skill”
This proverb means that when a craftsman leaves their original specialty and tries various different jobs, they lose the skills and expertise they built over many years.
Mastering one skill requires enormous time and effort. But when you get distracted by other work, your abilities decline. Everything you worked so hard to build up goes to waste.
This proverb is used when someone with expertise focuses too much on things outside their main work. It also warns people trying to expand into multiple fields about the danger of losing their original strengths.
It applies not just to craftsmen, but to all professionals, technicians, and researchers who develop skills in specific fields. This saying teaches the importance of digging deep into one path. It expresses a value system that emphasizes specialization.
Origin and Etymology
Multiple theories exist about the clear source of this proverb. The theory that it comes from Chinese classics is most credible. However, even modern research disagrees on which book and which passage it comes from.
Let’s think about the structure of the words. “Kōjin” means craftsman. “Sūgyō” means multiple jobs or skills.
“Kaereba” means to change or switch around. “Sono kō wo ushinau” means to lose the skills or achievements you originally had.
This structure reveals a value that has been important in the world of craftsmen since ancient times: “master one path.”
In ancient China and Japan, craftsmen trained for many years under a master. They made their living by polishing one skill. Swordsmiths made swords. Potters made pottery. Carpenters built buildings.
Each person devoted their life to their specialized field. This was considered normal. In this social context, trying multiple jobs meant becoming mediocre at everything. It meant losing your value as a craftsman.
This proverb is thought to be practical wisdom cultivated in craftsman culture, crystallized into words. It’s a teaching born from the cultural soil of East Asia, which values specialization.
Usage Examples
- He was an excellent programmer, but he got obsessed with investing and side businesses. When a craftsman changes many trades, he loses his skill—now his technical abilities have declined
- You’re training as a chef, but trying all these different part-time jobs will lead to when a craftsman changes many trades, he loses his skill
Universal Wisdom
This proverb speaks to us about a fundamental human desire and the ironic results that desire brings. We constantly want more.
When we can do one thing, we want to be able to do something else too. That ambition itself is wonderful. But humans have only limited time and energy. This is a harsh reality.
Why was this proverb created and passed down for so long? Because many people have actually experienced this failure.
Developing skills requires repetition and concentration. Some techniques can only be learned through daily accumulation. But that accumulation is surprisingly fragile. Just staying away for a while makes your hands clumsy. Your sense of touch fades.
Human psychology has a quality called “the grass is always greener.” What others are doing looks more attractive than what you’re doing now.
So you jump to something new, then your eyes wander to something else. After repeating this cycle, you realize the emptiness of never deeply learning anything.
Our ancestors understood this human nature. They put into this proverb the truth that real fulfillment comes not from breadth but from depth.
When AI Hears This
A craftsman’s skill is exactly what physics calls a “low entropy state.” Entropy is the degree of disorder.
When you drop paint into a glass of water, it naturally spreads and mixes. This is entropy increasing. Conversely, extracting just the paint from mixed water requires enormous energy.
A craftsman’s hand movements have the same structure. A beginner’s movements are scattered and chaotic—a high entropy state.
Bringing this to expert skill, meaning refined movements with no waste, requires investing energy through thousands of hours of practice. The process of neural circuits organizing into specific patterns and muscle memory being precisely adjusted is exactly the creation of order.
What’s important here is that the second law of thermodynamics teaches “things naturally become disordered if left alone.” A refrigerator warms up when you turn off the electricity. A room gets messy without cleaning.
Similarly, when you stop practicing, neural connections weaken and muscle coordination is lost. Skills naturally return to a high entropy state.
In other words, skill deterioration isn’t the result of laziness. It’s inevitable according to the laws of the universe.
If you try to maintain multiple skills simultaneously, the energy you can invest in each gets dispersed. Everything settles into a mediocre high entropy state.
Lessons for Today
Modern times praise “multitasking” and “diverse skills.” But this proverb teaches us the truth that real strength comes from depth.
If you’re devoted to one thing, that’s not narrow-minded. Rather, that depth creates value that only you can provide.
Of course, curiosity to try new things is important. But that’s different from abandoning the expertise you have now.
What matters is having a core strength and expanding from that foundation. Like a chef learning nutrition. Like a programmer understanding design.
Learning to deepen your main work never becomes “changing many trades.”
If you’re feeling uncertain about continuing something now, remember this. Remember the value of what you’ve accumulated by walking that path.
If you give it up easily, all that time and effort will be lost. Have the courage to believe in one path and move forward.
Real achievement and pride are waiting ahead.
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