“a bad craftsperson blames their tools”, a phrase said only by people who’ve never used a good and bad tool
the good craftsperson bowed their head solemnly and spoke: "theres actually zero difference between good & bad tools. you imbecile. you bad craftsperson"
it reminds me of how I once saw a video of someone doing fancy calligraphy with a crayola marker – which is fine, if you're getting the results you want from that, then that's great! – and someone in the comments was like "see, there's no need to buy any of that expensive junk, the cheapest stuff works just as well if you make an effort."
my sibling, we have calligraphy in proper ink that's still legible after a thousand years and I don't think a red crayola marker could stand up to one afternoon of direct sunlight
I think it's entirely valid to read the subtext of the quote as "a good craftsperson, therefore, understands what the correct tool for the job is"
Another big interpretation of the quote I see is "a good craftsperson keeps their tools well-maintained, in good working order" and I bring this up mainly because I think the big reason the aphorism is worded the way it is, is to be open-ended like that.
the way i always understood it was "a bad craftsperson will not admit their substandard work is their own fault"
(a good craftsperson might still turn out substandard work if forced to work with suboptimal tools and conditions, but there they'd probably be right to say the fault doesn't lie with them)
