At the end of my visit to 8th Light Justin Martin was kind enough to give me a ride to the train station; for my train back to O’Hare. Just before he left he asked me an interesting question which I then posted to twitter:

Liam McLennan: . @JustinMartinM asked what I think is the most important attributes of craftsmen. I said, "desire to learn and humility". What's yours? 6:25 AM Apr 17th via TweetDeck

several people replied with excellent contributions:

Alex Hung: @liammclennan I think kaizen sums up craftmanship pretty well, which is almost same as yours

Steve Bohlen: @alexhung @liammclennan those are both all about saying "knowing what you don't know and not being afraid to go learn it" (and I agree!)

Matt Roman: @liammclennan @JustinMartinM a tempered compulsion for constant improvement, and an awareness of what needs improving.

Justin Martin: @mattroman @liammclennan a faculty for asking challenging questions, and a persistence to battle through difficult obstacles barring growth

I thought this was an interesting conversation, and I would love to see other people contribute their opinions. My observation is that Alex, Steve, Matt and I seem to have essentially the same answer in different words. It is also interesting to note (as Alex pointed out) that these definitions are very similar to Alt.NET and the lean concept of kaizen.