Everyone cannot be a "Jack or Jill of all trades" which is why there are tradespeople who specialize in one or more skill sets. However, in the course of 20th century living and early 21st century living many people have acquired a number of tools and skills which they do not use to make a livelihood, but which they are pretty good at such as plumbing, electrical, woodworking, roofing, sewing, etc.

A community relocalization effort can benefit by taking an inventory of the tools and skill sets people have acquired. The end of cheap fossil fuel energy means a lot of what needs to be done in a community will need to be done by people within that community. Importing skilled tradespeople from many miles away may not be an option in a relocalized community.

In the late 1960s Stewart Brand published The Whole Earth Catalog as a way for people to gain access to tools of all kinds along with information about their usefulness, quality and how to obtain them. The WEC's resident tool expert and editor was Jay Baldwin whose workshop was both "highly evolved" and mobile. Every relocalized community could benefit by having such a "highly evolved" mobile workshop with people skilled to use it.