Loved this short essay on the importance and paradox of maintenance: Maintenance: Of Everything by Stewart Brand
The apparent paradox is profound: Maintenance is absolutely necessary and maintenance is optional. It it easy to put off, and yet it has to be done. Defer now, regret later.
What to do?
Soften the paradox and the misbehavior it encourages by expanding the term “maintenance” beyond referring only to preventive maintenance to stave off the trauma of repair–brushing the damn teeth, etc. Let “maintenance” mean the whole grand process of keeping a thing going. In that perspective, occasional repair is part of the process. Close monitoring is part of the process. Changing the oil is part of the process. Eventually replacing the thing is part of the process.
Maintenance in this larger sense has nothing optional about it.
Maintenance: Of Everything by Stewart Brand via Matt
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