I haven't read all the above posts, but this discussion crops up with many hobbies and professions that require expensive equipment. In response to the statement "A bad workman blames his tools" I always point out that good workmen almost always have good tools.


To be honest I think the argument is moot. Let's take the argument to the extreme. Pick an intelligent modern Westerner at random and take away all his technology and stick him in a cave with nothing more than cave-man clothing and tools. Will he survive long? Probably not. Will he be able to recreate any of the wonders of the modern world? No. Why? Because he doesn't have the tools.


Everything we do these days requires tools. To do anything really well requires good tools. But give those same tools to a monkey and he'll just try to eat them or use them to hit stuff with. It's a two-way process; good user requires good tools, good tools require a good user to get the most out of them. The end result will only be as good as the weakest of the two.


Which is why I think people who say that the tools don't matter are wrong - but so are those who say that tools are all that matters. In reality I don't think many people are so foolish to really think either extreme is true but it can come across that way sometimes; the real answer is much less simplistic.