Then again, if you're a technologist pouring your energy into a computer all day (he's a self-described Rails hacker and product manager at 10gen), arguably fix

Then again, if you're a technologist pouring your energy into a computer all day (he's a self-described Rails hacker and product manager at 10gen), arguably fixing said computer is close enough to your own specialty. Personally I've benefited greatly from learning how to fix my own hardware. My laptop of choice is the old T4x series Thinkpad for the ease of disassembly, repair, and wealth of information out there on sites like thinkwiki.org. It saddens me whenever I hear a computer scientist say (with a note of helplessness) that they're waiting on their laptop, it's in the shop.