3 ms·

As I enter my mid 30s and am now a year into taking care of my late father's house, I have come to realize that maintenance can really take up so much of your f

As I enter my mid 30s and am now a year into taking care of my late father's house, I have come to realize that maintenance can really take up so much of your free time that it often feels like its never ending. Its as if when one thing is fixed or "refurbished" the next thing breaks or changes its behavior immediately right after. It can be overwhelming to overcome all this entropy. Seems as if the only way to really reduce a maintenance burden is to simplify your life more and more including the things in your life. But then you are still having to take care of your body and if you have a family others as well. I can understand a society that has FOMO will put maintenance on the backburner. There just isn't enough time to have your cake and eat it too in our modern world it seems.

balaji1 4y ago
Maintenance should be outsourced a lot more. As in get pros to come and fix things. Maintenance doesn't seem much in demand in the US in a residential/consumer context, probably because it is expensive and other reasons like the grandparent comment: > We simply do not appreciate Maintenance people... Maintenance and service is much more common in India. There are young and old folks in a thriving industry for repairs and maintenance. You will see they are super knowledgable in their vocation and they get stuff fixed well and quick. Though I do think these industries are shrinking in India - i.e "catching up" to the West. In the US, middle-class probably only services cars and heavy equipment at home. And more things are manufactured to not be maintained but replaced - a weird example is mattresses and pillows. Of course there must be a lot more servicing happening in non-residential contexts, both in the West and in India. > simplify your life more and more including the things in your life This is such an underrated hack. Can't find it now - but think there is a Naval tweet about how getting rid of things is a huge help for creating peace in life.
- amatecha 4y ago
  I've found that the problem is, the pros typically won't do a better job than I would do myself. In fact, I got my uncle to fix my fridge after numerous places simply said "we don't repair fridges" (despite being an "appliance repair" company), another place thought it was a certain failed component, another thought it was a different part -- until they replaced that part and found that another part had a problem.. then they found the ACTUAL cause of the problem, a clogged tube. Which they don't/can't fix. Meanwhile, I find a video of a guy literally working on side of the road in India who clears this tube nearly effortlessly in like 5 minutes. "Professionals" are often just "a company that happens to officially do the thing you want", but the degree of craftsmanship is frequently absolutely pathetic. Oh yeah, one of those fridge repair places scratched the hell out of my floor by dragging the fridge without placing a protective plexiglass/plastic down first. It's like no one cares to do a good, thorough job anymore.
  - balaji1 4y ago
    Ouch rough experience. And probably those appliance repair charged you so much more for the quality of service or even to just show up and take a look. Preventative maintainability of modern things seems so low - either tech is over complicated or has short lifespan or take too much effort/time/money. Maintenance also requires a network of appliance service companies tied up to the OEMs - and frankly they should be selling subscriptions and coming by to service appliances proactively - kinda like our dentists. The incentive structures are probably not right for this.
    - amatecha 4y ago
      Yeah so far every place is like "it's not worth it to fix"... it's like... really? It's not worth getting a $4k+ fridge working again with a few $hundred of parts and a couple hours of labour? Let's just throw it in the trash and drop another $4k+ to replace it with a "similar" fridge (which then doesn't match the other appliances in the kitchen)! This mentality of "just buy a new one" is so prevalent everywhere :(
      - BizarroLand 4y ago
        And the fact that human time is always the more expensive portion of any maintenance work. Sure, some things it makes sense to trust in those more skilled than you, with the proper toolsets and experience to finish a job correctly and back the result with a warranty, like larger vehicle maintenance tasks, plumbing, and major structural home remodeling. But... so many things are not worth the premium that it boggles the mind. Changing a light switch? 10 minutes and a screwdriver is all you need to save a $75 house call. Replacing a door handle? 10 minutes and a screwdriver is all you need to save a $75 house call. If you are willing, able bodied, and strong enough to handle the appropriate tools, then you owe it to yourself and your wallet to handle the things that you can handle and take the money you save and use that to help cover the things you cannot.
ehnto 4y ago
It is never-ending if you're doing it well, and want to keep your "thing". Maintenance isn't an improvement, or a project, it's just what you do to keep your thing serviceable. I would say most of society is geared toward project work, with rapid turnover in all areas of life. Cars, phones, devices, even leadership and communities come and go quickly, which coupled with FOMO like you've pointed out, makes it hard to care about maintenance. In the software world, we see this acutely, we know from experience that our projects are lucky to see 3 years of use before they're ditched, from failure or from a rebuild. In the agency world, my work can be gone in less than 12 months, when a clients new Creative Director or Head of Digital wants to leave their mark with a new site or app. There is beauty in use and maintenance though, there is type of wear you see on well-used infrastructure that sees regular maintenance. It's worn, but clean, and in working order. Use and wash a handrail enough times and it'll end up polished. A well used bike-path looks worn down but it's free of debris. A well-maintained bicycle might have worn paint but doesn't creak or squeak, that kind of thing. I saw it a lot in Japan, some of their infrastructure looks worn and outdated, but it's all clean and serviceable. It's worn because it lasted so long, thanks to being well maintained.
- cratermoon 4y ago
  I remember visiting my sister when she graduated with her MBA and the stone steps in many buildings showed clearly decades of use. They were clean and the handrails were in the good repair. Nice university.

balaji1 4y ago

Maintenance should be outsourced a lot more. As in get pros to come and fix things. Maintenance doesn't seem much in demand in the US in a residential/consumer context, probably because it is expensive and other reasons like the grandparent comment: > We simply do not appreciate Maintenance people... Maintenance and service is much more common in India. There are young and old folks in a thriving industry for repairs and maintenance. You will see they are super knowledgable in their vocation and they get stuff fixed well and quick. Though I do think these industries are shrinking in India - i.e "catching up" to the West. In the US, middle-class probably only services cars and heavy equipment at home. And more things are manufactured to not be maintained but replaced - a weird example is mattresses and pillows. Of course there must be a lot more servicing happening in non-residential contexts, both in the West and in India. > simplify your life more and more including the things in your life This is such an underrated hack. Can't find it now - but think there is a Naval tweet about how getting rid of things is a huge help for creating peace in life.

amatecha 4y ago
I've found that the problem is, the pros typically won't do a better job than I would do myself. In fact, I got my uncle to fix my fridge after numerous places simply said "we don't repair fridges" (despite being an "appliance repair" company), another place thought it was a certain failed component, another thought it was a different part -- until they replaced that part and found that another part had a problem.. then they found the ACTUAL cause of the problem, a clogged tube. Which they don't/can't fix. Meanwhile, I find a video of a guy literally working on side of the road in India who clears this tube nearly effortlessly in like 5 minutes. "Professionals" are often just "a company that happens to officially do the thing you want", but the degree of craftsmanship is frequently absolutely pathetic. Oh yeah, one of those fridge repair places scratched the hell out of my floor by dragging the fridge without placing a protective plexiglass/plastic down first. It's like no one cares to do a good, thorough job anymore.
- balaji1 4y ago
  Ouch rough experience. And probably those appliance repair charged you so much more for the quality of service or even to just show up and take a look. Preventative maintainability of modern things seems so low - either tech is over complicated or has short lifespan or take too much effort/time/money. Maintenance also requires a network of appliance service companies tied up to the OEMs - and frankly they should be selling subscriptions and coming by to service appliances proactively - kinda like our dentists. The incentive structures are probably not right for this.
  - amatecha 4y ago
    Yeah so far every place is like "it's not worth it to fix"... it's like... really? It's not worth getting a $4k+ fridge working again with a few $hundred of parts and a couple hours of labour? Let's just throw it in the trash and drop another $4k+ to replace it with a "similar" fridge (which then doesn't match the other appliances in the kitchen)! This mentality of "just buy a new one" is so prevalent everywhere :(
    - BizarroLand 4y ago
      And the fact that human time is always the more expensive portion of any maintenance work. Sure, some things it makes sense to trust in those more skilled than you, with the proper toolsets and experience to finish a job correctly and back the result with a warranty, like larger vehicle maintenance tasks, plumbing, and major structural home remodeling. But... so many things are not worth the premium that it boggles the mind. Changing a light switch? 10 minutes and a screwdriver is all you need to save a $75 house call. Replacing a door handle? 10 minutes and a screwdriver is all you need to save a $75 house call. If you are willing, able bodied, and strong enough to handle the appropriate tools, then you owe it to yourself and your wallet to handle the things that you can handle and take the money you save and use that to help cover the things you cannot.

ehnto 4y ago

It is never-ending if you're doing it well, and want to keep your "thing". Maintenance isn't an improvement, or a project, it's just what you do to keep your thing serviceable. I would say most of society is geared toward project work, with rapid turnover in all areas of life. Cars, phones, devices, even leadership and communities come and go quickly, which coupled with FOMO like you've pointed out, makes it hard to care about maintenance. In the software world, we see this acutely, we know from experience that our projects are lucky to see 3 years of use before they're ditched, from failure or from a rebuild. In the agency world, my work can be gone in less than 12 months, when a clients new Creative Director or Head of Digital wants to leave their mark with a new site or app. There is beauty in use and maintenance though, there is type of wear you see on well-used infrastructure that sees regular maintenance. It's worn, but clean, and in working order. Use and wash a handrail enough times and it'll end up polished. A well used bike-path looks worn down but it's free of debris. A well-maintained bicycle might have worn paint but doesn't creak or squeak, that kind of thing. I saw it a lot in Japan, some of their infrastructure looks worn and outdated, but it's all clean and serviceable. It's worn because it lasted so long, thanks to being well maintained.

cratermoon 4y ago
I remember visiting my sister when she graduated with her MBA and the stone steps in many buildings showed clearly decades of use. They were clean and the handrails were in the good repair. Nice university.