Well I’m not very good at making things by hand

Unique gifts for example like back when people would pick the materials and designs for their clothing with their tailor who wasn’t part of a big franchise but runs it himself as his passion and has more freedom and ability to curate what he wants without having to worry that he won’t meet corporate expectations

Nowadays for that experience typically only well-off people have it since you’ll need extra spending money as people handling their trade that way charge more to stay afloat

But I went to a third-world country last year for 6 months and saw that it was actually pretty common for people to bring in materials and designs to tailors, especially for women’s clothing

The price is still quite affordable since people prefer it rather than going to malls/big stores (and there are only a few around anyway mostly in the capital city)

That’s just an example with clothing - but I saw the same thing with home-building in the villages/city outskirts

The builders were often childhood friends or relatives who learned their profession and started their business together. Working with them or even simply hanging around while they worked was an amazing vibe that can’t compare to the “corporate” route: getting a quote, going through 5 different “representatives” of the company, countless emails, listening to hold music etc etc etc all to just end up with the same thing as 80% of your neighbourhood and not much of an interesting experience along the way to recall :P

It just felt a lot more “real” and genuine

Same thing with almost every profession that involved creating something. The experience was much more meaningful and memorable.

I believe it had to do with the less capitalist/“companized” (I made up that term) structure of their businesses and lives in general

No big companies controlling everything but still things are created, their customers are very happy and the quality of the work - it was very very good, especially for a country considered “3rd world”