So we must work at our profession and not make anybody else's idleness an excuse for our own. There is no lack of readers and listeners it is for us to produce something worth being written and heard.

Meaning: Another worker can often find something to improve in work already considered finished. The second barber’s remaining task suggests that completion depends on standards and perspective, without proving that earlier work was careless or endless correction is necessary.

Meaning: People working in the same trade may compete or disagree despite their shared occupation. The proverb highlights rivalry among peers, without establishing that cooperation is rare or that professional differences are personal hostility.