Having grown up and lived in Maine for over 40 years has awakened me to an interesting thought semi-recently: The "Maine mindset" of solve the task at hand, of

Having grown up and lived in Maine for over 40 years has awakened me to an interesting thought semi-recently: The "Maine mindset" of solve the task at hand, oftentimes even if it does not look pretty or seem an 'official' fix is basically the hacker mindset. Having not many people in a rather large rural area that gets "all the seasons", combined with generally far lower incomes than many areas tends to put "survival" on the table quite frequently. Making things work, modifying things to work in the use case you need something to work in, kludges and contraptions is seen across every aspect of living in this state. Reuse and re-purposing of items (and saving everything under the sun just in case it may be needed -- you should see our yards!) Seems to be THE core mindset. The weather is... Often less than ideal, but the people and this mindset make living here a pretty unique experience it feels like. It's not surprising at all that over 85% of the voting population aligned with "yeah, people should be able to fix their own shit" -- because for so many of us "mariners" (edit: Mainers), it's how we make the ends meet and survive until the next Spring. Also of note, basically the entire state is 100% dependent on car travels. We travel distances for.. everything. In weather. If your car breaks, etc, you immediately are in a position that needs to be rectified real quickly...