here's a reply of mine to a framelist
thread - a LONG thread - about framebuiding
as a career:

okay, will?#m -
i had to read this twice to make sure i grasped where
you're coming from, or at least where i think you're
coming from.

i don't agree with you on the all the romanticizing going
on with lugs because of what i wrote in the post you re-
plied to. but there's one thing i will agree with you on:
we have a similar streak inasmuch as both of us do what
we do/want to do regardless of the warning signs around
us. is that commendable? i don't know. but it works for me
and i hope it works for you.

that said, i think the thread has drifted a bit. framebuilding
is about framebuilding, not lugs. fine that you/we want to
exercise this method for creative reasons, but part of all
this is about learning what goes where. i and others too,
have posted that it's near impossible to succeed by self-
teaching. you can copy lug designs and window variations
until the cows come home but it's not clear to me how you're
improve your skill set if you've never worked for someone else.
just to prove how self-absorbed i am, i'll link to a 2002 CR list
post in which i replied on a thread where a bunch of vintage
sycophants were praising a whole mess of old frames, all
factory made, and all on the butch side, simply because
they loved lugs and lamented their era's passing. here:
http://search.bikelist.org/getmsg.asp?Filename=classicrendezvous.10210.0505.eml
e-RICHIE