I want to inform readers that the article is about three people. There's no transition when they start talking about the second one, and I didn't remember the names, so I didn't figure it out till the end of the article and missed all the contrasts.
I was fortunate to read a preprint of Brand's latest. It's magnificent.
How and why do things fail? What are the cultures that lead to long-lasting products?
The undercurrent here is that Brand is behind the 10,000 year clock and has a vested interest in making things last a long time.
This book is an exploration of the world of things, how they break, and how people fix them. It's a huge effort, and Part One is right. He's been posting further work on Twitter from Part Two.
He included some sword fighting manuals that I sent that we think are the earliest written instruction guide.
This is a topic I’ve been wanting a book on for a long time. We’ve done so much work to eliminate the need for maintenance for the masses through things like planned obsolescence, renting instead of owning, and appeasing the hedonic treadmill. I can’t help but feel through this we’ve lost a lot of collective skills in patience and ownership as a result.
I really enjoyed it. I'll probably get a copy of this. I loved the thermodynamics analogy in the start of the podcast, likening maintenance to the prevention of entropy, with all the energetic exchanges that entails. Though maintenance does take work, it's worth it. Stewart makes a compelling case for it.
To hear Patrick Collison tell it, "we see that one of the main limits on Stripe's growth is the number of successful startups in the world. If we can cheaply help increase that number, it makes a lot of business sense for us to do so."
Ah well, to me it kind of misses the point. Yes it's a valid method of repair, for pottery. Really the book should have been designed to be long lasting/ repairable. But then I do over think these things.
I'm interested in the topic, and the book cover looks great, so I'll probably read it.
But it seems a bit "Maintenance: For Boys". The items mentioned on this page are "the maintenance of sailboats, vehicles, and weapons", and "Soviet tanks, or tricked-out Model Ts".
No mention that for millenia we were mending our clothes, cleaning our houses, maintaining our food systems.
The reason this book sounds interesting is that maintenance is systematically undervalued, and basically in our human history pushed onto women and the lowest social classes. But the marketing material seems to highlight only the "sexy" stuff like weapons and vehicles. Where's the maintenance of washing our hands, washing our clothes, cleaning our streets?
There's this artist, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, who was the "Artist in Residence" at NYC's department of sanitation in the 70s, and tried to use conceptual art as a way to highlight the work of the department and make "maintenance art" a thing. I'm interested in that kind of re-valuing of maintenance.
I bet this book will be interesting, I just don't like the framing as "Maintenance: Of Everything" since it's clearly not the whole story. Hopefully part 2 has a broader scope and mindset.
If anyone has already read this book, can you share your thoughts on how does it compare to software engineering, do you see parallels, are they applicable and so on
As robots are creating products, they are using all the space possible making human to interact difficult (think about opening a screw). Previously, those products created by human hands, making it possible to interact by other human hands (as maintainer).
Now, I think same about making programs by AI. They do sometimes in such a way that makes future maintenance harder.
16 comments
[ 4.6 ms ] story [ 30.2 ms ] thread[0]: https://worksinprogress.co/issue/the-maintenance-race/
EDIT: discussion at that time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32196345
How and why do things fail? What are the cultures that lead to long-lasting products?
The undercurrent here is that Brand is behind the 10,000 year clock and has a vested interest in making things last a long time.
This book is an exploration of the world of things, how they break, and how people fix them. It's a huge effort, and Part One is right. He's been posting further work on Twitter from Part Two.
He included some sword fighting manuals that I sent that we think are the earliest written instruction guide.
I’m looking forward to reading this.
https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/01/19/341-...
I really enjoyed it. I'll probably get a copy of this. I loved the thermodynamics analogy in the start of the podcast, likening maintenance to the prevention of entropy, with all the energetic exchanges that entails. Though maintenance does take work, it's worth it. Stewart makes a compelling case for it.
To hear Patrick Collison tell it, "we see that one of the main limits on Stripe's growth is the number of successful startups in the world. If we can cheaply help increase that number, it makes a lot of business sense for us to do so."
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Edit: Sorry, my mind was preoccupied with buying the book instead of elaborating.
The interactive 3d render of the book and the gold gleam of the Kintusgi sent me absolutely gushing.
But it seems a bit "Maintenance: For Boys". The items mentioned on this page are "the maintenance of sailboats, vehicles, and weapons", and "Soviet tanks, or tricked-out Model Ts".
No mention that for millenia we were mending our clothes, cleaning our houses, maintaining our food systems.
The reason this book sounds interesting is that maintenance is systematically undervalued, and basically in our human history pushed onto women and the lowest social classes. But the marketing material seems to highlight only the "sexy" stuff like weapons and vehicles. Where's the maintenance of washing our hands, washing our clothes, cleaning our streets?
There's this artist, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, who was the "Artist in Residence" at NYC's department of sanitation in the 70s, and tried to use conceptual art as a way to highlight the work of the department and make "maintenance art" a thing. I'm interested in that kind of re-valuing of maintenance.
I bet this book will be interesting, I just don't like the framing as "Maintenance: Of Everything" since it's clearly not the whole story. Hopefully part 2 has a broader scope and mindset.
Now, I think same about making programs by AI. They do sometimes in such a way that makes future maintenance harder.
The problem comes when price is not cheap.