This is a lovely concept and I'm kind of sad that there isn't a cafe in my state of Washington (list of locations, in case you missed it from the article: https://repaircafe.org/en/visit/)
Besides the obviously nice communal aspect of the entire thing, I think this evokes a question that will become more and more vital over the coming years: how do we build an ethos of sustainability when the immediate merits of sustainability keep shrinking?
You can't because if it's going to cost corporations money to make things more repairable then it's not going to happen.
There's always a tendency for technical folks to think that their world view is the view of most people and I submit that's not the case. I mean reality shows that people choose price and functionality over repair-ability.
There seems no rationale to me that would make me sacrifice all of the qualities that makes consumer electronics desirable - affordability, availability, functionality.
It seems mutually exclusive to rapid production of consumer goods.
Good points all around. I think that there are also non-technical people who remember when devices would last a very very long time. That is something tangible that consumers have lost to some extent.
> when the immediate merits of sustainability keep shrinking
I think that point will change when raw material costs rise significantly. When we run out of certain rare elements, such as certain metals (eg niobium, tantalum), sustainability will become much more financially attractive.
6 comments
[ 4.8 ms ] story [ 26.8 ms ] threadBesides the obviously nice communal aspect of the entire thing, I think this evokes a question that will become more and more vital over the coming years: how do we build an ethos of sustainability when the immediate merits of sustainability keep shrinking?
https://repaircafe.org/en/start/
There's always a tendency for technical folks to think that their world view is the view of most people and I submit that's not the case. I mean reality shows that people choose price and functionality over repair-ability.
There seems no rationale to me that would make me sacrifice all of the qualities that makes consumer electronics desirable - affordability, availability, functionality.
It seems mutually exclusive to rapid production of consumer goods.
I think that point will change when raw material costs rise significantly. When we run out of certain rare elements, such as certain metals (eg niobium, tantalum), sustainability will become much more financially attractive.