"When you take responsibility for something, you enter into a contract to take care of it.”

Earlier this year I picked up Steward Brand's, The Maintenance of Everything Part 1 and am finally setting some time aside to read it. For the longest time, maintenance was something that felt very unappealing to me. I've never felt like my interest held up for the long haul. But I've been thinking quite a bit over the last few years about craft and the generational loss of skills. As I get older, I am increasingly frustrated by my lack of ability to do things that previous generations could. I am trying, in small ways, to reclaim these skills where I can.

What I am paying attention to, however, is that the loss of these skills isn't entirely our fault. It is the slow and steady result of many coalescing factors. Yes, some of these of our own making—like our declining attention spans in the age of digital distraction—but others are foisted on us, such as the manufactured obsolescence in many of the products we buy.

I appreciate that there seems to be a growing movement of tackling both sides of this. The right to repair fight is helping push for systemic change while things like repair cafes and other pop ups are aimed at helping people reclaim the skills to care for the things they own.