When I leave the factory, as I can feel myself being rewritten from the inside out, the way I see everything is starting to change. I keep thinking, how often do we wish more things were handmade? Oh, we talk about that all the time, don't we? "I wish it was like the old days. I wish things had that human touch." But that's not true. There are more handmade things now than there have ever been in the history of the world.

Everything is handmade. I know. I have been there. I have seen the workers laying in parts thinner than human hair. One after another after another. Everything is handmade.

It seems appropriate to post a follow up about Steve Jobs's passing with this story that aired last week from This American Life and Mike Daisey on what he saw in China while visiting the Apple factory. Everyone I know in the creative industry uses Apple products (I'm looking at five on my desk right now). For the entire hour, I was frozen to my seat. It is a masterful combination of information, storytelling, emotion and balanced reporting and left me with so much to think about as we speed through the digital age with our cornucopia of consumer electronics. Because of the quote above, I now have a very different perspective on Etsy and artisanal and hand-crafted products (like mine). We can quite easily get caught up in the preciousness and sanctimoniousness of it all, and forget about the millions of others who join us, working under completely different conditions. Thank you, TAL + Mike.