[hackerspaces] Now I am totally depressed...

Sven Guckes maillist-hackerspaces-discuss at guckes.net
Thu Mar 4 04:14:26 CET 2010


* Eureka <eureka at fusionnetwork.us> [2010-03-03 22:52]:
> I don't know about either of those but I do remember wondering why no
> one else seemed to care how things actually work. They just care that it
> dose work and when it breaks they either call someone like us, sell it
> on ebay to someone like us or just throw it away and buy a new one...
> It seems that the majority of this country is not interested
> in the how or why but just the "does it work".

most people only want stuff to "work".  it's only natural.

nobody has time to find out *why* everything
works like it does.  and why should they?

at schools you learn how to make use of things,
not to find out how things work, why they broke,
and how to fix them. that's too much "work".

fixing things is done at repair shops.
(do they exist still? only in china?)

> I guess it just means more toys for us and
> more gear to take apart and have fun with.

indeed!

admit it, folks:  you are *happy* when
people throw away "broken" stuff - and
you get them for *free*, so you can
actually afford to take them apart.

so whenever i see a operating system which tells
its user to "upgrade the hardware" because
the new version of some software "requires" it
then i am happy if he does upgrade - and
gives away his old "useless" hardware. whee! :-)

so when you teach people how to repair stuff
then i usually hear:  "my PC of last year
told me i should upgrade.. but then i tinkered a
little with the source code and found an easy fix
and now the program is even speedier than before."
no PC upgrade, no old PC for me.  dang!

so - teaching people to fix their stuff
themselves is harmful to hackerspaces!
somebody stop Bre Pettis and Mitch Altman!

;-)

Sven

-- 
Teach a man to  fish and you'll feed him for the rest of his life.
Teach a man to phish and he'll clean out your bank account.


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