Originally Posted by
dabac
Jobst is only human, and strongly opinionated at that. He doesn't approve of low spoke count wheels on general principles, so it's not surprising if he would unintentionally blur the line between what he considers shouldn't be done and what "can't" be done.
It's not "can't be done" as a physical impossibility, but rather "can't be done" as in difficult, uncomfortable, time consuming and without particular merit.
Use high quality stuff and some extra consideration and it should still be doable.
It always seemed to me that anyone born before 1950 insists on nothing but 36 spokes laced 4 cross. The guy who taught me to build wheels literally yelled at me when I took some 36h rims he gave me and laced the front radially. I weighed 120 at the time and never had to true a wheel unless I crashed (or someone crashed into me).