The idea behind Hurff Haus
A house for
useful work.
A place for the thinking and the making.
And a reminder that the two belong together.
An old idea,
a present practice.
A working tradition.
Still worth building on.
The name is personal. The ambition is practical: a house for a working life, ideas worth testing, and things worth making well.
One inspiration is Roycroft—the community of printers, writers, and craftspeople founded by Elbert Hubbard in East Aurora, New York. Books and useful objects were part of the same undertaking. Thought and craft shared a home.
This isn’t a newly discovered interest. My old LA Makerspace biography put Hubbard and Roycroft alongside Dard Hunter, Dieter Rams, Ray and Charles Eames, vintage books, and typeset printing. An earlier personal website carried Hubbard’s “The Good Life Recipe.”
Hurff Haus takes that tradition as an invitation, not a template. Today’s materials include software, organizations, and AI systems. The useful question is still what happens when clear thinking, capable hands, and human purpose meet.
Three things to keep together
Head. Hand. Heart.
HeadThink clearly.
Understand the problem. Follow the evidence. Know the difference between an impressive idea and a useful one.
HandStay in the work.
Build, test, and repair. Let the implementation tell you where the theory falls short. Leave something that works.
HeartRemember the people.
A system serves someone. So does a company. Skill matters most when it is joined to care for the people affected by the work.
A small card; a useful distinction.
A note to keep nearby
The difference between
being and seeming.
The card says it plainly: “Suppose you BE, not merely SEEM.” It is a good standard for a personal website, too. The story ought to be supported by the work. The appearance should serve the substance.
That is the purpose of the biography: not a collection of titles, but an account of what those chapters involved. The House is the place to keep connecting them.
Further into the tradition
Roycroft’s history belongs to its community. These are good places to begin:
The principles above are a contemporary interpretation, not a quotation from Hubbard or an affiliation with the Roycroft Campus.