Don't Just Sit There! Start Fix it!

Since many years, I have spent a great amount of time repairing and tinkering all kind of things, spending countless hours on many diverse projects while at the same time having fun understanding deeply how things work. From completely restoring an old 70's marine diesel engine, sewing "next generation" washable diapers with modern textiles, to tinkering a long range radio-fax receiver to get free marine weather forecast while on a sailing trip, or even building a zero-screw large size custom bookshelf - I have always been spending my free time learning and working on diverse prototypes (not speaking of the internet ones...)

• Consider it as a hobby - it is really [a good] one!

I always thought about this as being a "side hobby" to be compared with video-games...Which is a very convenient comparison - as you have no pressure at all to make it perfect.  You can spend countless hours of your free time on it (with the excuse that others may be sleeping or playing video games during this time...). And you get a lot of sense of accomplishment when you get to the "POC moment". (you get the dirty prototype working for the first time).

• Use it as a way to get inspired to learn about a variety of topics

Here is a small set of skills I've learnt through repairing things: Hand sewing  / machine sewing, how gasoline and diesel engines works and how to repair them, electronics - and how to repair a wide variety of common use objects, woodworking and how to create my own furniture... Thanks to internet and it's wonderfully easy access to information and tutorials, anyone can about anything. But you need a purpose to get the motivation to learn new things. Or an excuse. Consider everything that break as an opportunity to learn about new things, not just a fastidious task.

• You're helping the planet

Today with the maker's movements and the repair culture growing in popularity, this is even better:  it gives a sense of purpose and utility to something I did before with a little "shame", as I was "loosing" so much time making things that I could afford or replace easily instead. Today the value of products is getting an other meaning than only price. Thanks to the development of environmental and societal consciousness, we know that large scale global production reduce costs but does not necessarily represent the "fair" price of things. (See my latest tech article: Breaking open a fake mobile phone charger ) The more time we spend on repairing / tinkering on things, the more we value quality over price in products, as we know what they are really made of.  Then of course we spend even more time doing pre-purchase research.

• You're becoming more "resilient"

This subjet has become popular with sustainable development and agro-ecology movements, how does communities become self-sustainable without depending to large corporations. Building strong repairing / making skills will let you be more independant of the big bad "market". If you can't or don't want to buy it, you can certainly make it!