Sunday, 24 June 2018

In Praise of Maintenance - Freakonomics

quote [ Has our culture’s obsession with innovation led us to neglect the fact that things also need to be taken care of? ]

Here's a good Freakonomics episode that was just rebroadcast. This subject has come up here on SE a few times over the last few months. My career(s) have been pretty evenly split between the two extreme ends of the maintenance/innovation spectrum. The AEON Magazine article that sparks much of the conversation is in the Extended. Main link takes you to the full Freakonomics podcast transcript, as well as an audio link if you'd rather listen to it.

[SFW] [business] [+2]
[by midden@12:02pmGMT]

Comments

Dienes said @ 2:07pm GMT on 24th Jun [Score:2 Interesting]
Tangentially related, Kate Wagner of McMansion Hell wrote a great piece on how we're driven to renovate and 'update' homes for no goddamn reason.

https://www.curbed.com/2018/3/7/17087588/home-renovation-unnecessary-mcmansion-hell-wagner
electric guppy said @ 4:15pm GMT on 24th Jun
Just this week I decided to put out to the bone yard a big American luxury car that my wife and I bought twenty years ago. I admit to being somewhat emotionally attached to it because it was the car we brought the kids home in when they were born, and was involved in so many other good memories of their growing up.

The other source of attachment was the time I put into maintaining it. When we got it, I did oil changes and spark plugs, but over the course of two decades I have learned how to diagnose all the engine control systems and do major repairs. It just wasn't economical to pay someone else to fix it, so my doing almost all of the work was the only way we could enjoy our "living room on wheels."

Regarding Wagner's article (and accompanying comments): I continue to be astonished at some people's unsolicited criticism of others' homes. I think I learned by age 10 from my mother that it was poor manners to say anything uncomplementary about someone's home, clothes, etc.

Shortly after we moved into our current house (several decades ago), we invited a college acquaintance and her new husband to stay with us en route to some other travels. This fellow held advanced college degrees, yet upon entering our home he launched into a commentary about how ugly the 1970's kitchen decor was (and we have never practiced the tacky "let me show you around our home" bit as if our guests were to ooh and ahh over our color scheme or woodwork). We haven't felt inclined to invite them a second time.
rndmnmbr said @ 11:05pm GMT on 24th Jun
I would give good money for a Ford LTD or a Buick Electra or an Old's Delta 88, good old 70's malaise-era Detroit iron - and enough cash to drop a modern fuel-injected Chevy LS or Ford Coyote engine in it, along with a modern double-overdrive transmission. All the luxury of a road yacht, all the fuel economy of at least a modern light truck.
backSLIDER said @ 6:36pm GMT on 24th Jun
You would not believe the amount of people who think I'm crazy for having a truck and car with over 200k miles.

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