Ford Model T came with a complete manual for disassembly, maintenance, and repair. It made a generation of Americans fluent in mechanics who then went on to win World War II, to the Moon, and higher up skyscrapers than ever.
“Learn this as a child:”
“Do this as an adult:”
Never again. Right to repair doesn’t do much when the manual is so expensive only brand-dedicated repair shops can afford it.
Have you heard about our Lord and Saviour, iFixit?
For real though, look it up. Some 100k or so free repair manuals in twelve languages from phones to washing machines. And often enough, the necessary toolkit in their shop.
Upgraded every old MacBook (2009pro, 2015 pro) I had with bigger harddrives and did small repairs with ifixit instructions. But you notice they get less repairable over time. The 2009 thing was built like a tank and you could upgrade ram, replace a broken GPU and this thing over all felt very repairable. I still works but isn’t that useful any more 16 years after release. 2015 was way less repairable.
Yeah sure, repairing devices got harder over years and some devices simply aren’t repairable at all (at least not for laypeople who aren’t training or experienced in certain techniques like soldering) or you need very special equipment. But the manuals are less of a problem.
The old cars were also designed in such a way that you had to understand how the thing was constructed and functioned in order to make it work. Nowadays, I only barely understand how shifting gears works mechanically and drive an automatic. Modern cars do much of the work for you, much like modern computers.
My library gives us free access to Chilton online. It’s not the best for everything, but all of the information comes from the factory service manual. Plus you can find a lot of information online. You just have to learn what to look for.
There’s loads of places scattered around the internet where full service manuals are hosted for free for nearly any consumer product that has one available. The trouble is actually finding them…
Analog mechanical systems are so much more intuitive than digital ones though. The ability to physically see and touch and connect and tinker with things feels vastly more human than pointing and clicking and cursing and screaming.
Such a shame americans seems to think the only thing they need is to be american now. Don’t get me wrong, you’re still the most innovative (with europe?) but that’s what it feels like from the outside anyway.
Feel free to tell me I’m wrong though, it’s just a feeling 😅!
I think OP mentioned “a generation of Americans” because that’s the example they thought of, not because they think being American made the people exceptional.
You’re not wrong though - a lot of Americans definitely seem to think that just “being American” is some kind of accomplishment in and of itself. Meritless jingoism is intense here.
But I don’t see it being related to the previous comment.
Ford Model T came with a complete manual for disassembly, maintenance, and repair. It made a generation of Americans fluent in mechanics who then went on to win World War II, to the Moon, and higher up skyscrapers than ever.
“Learn this as a child:”
“Do this as an adult:”
Never again. Right to repair doesn’t do much when the manual is so expensive only brand-dedicated repair shops can afford it.
Have you heard about our Lord and Saviour, iFixit?
For real though, look it up. Some 100k or so free repair manuals in twelve languages from phones to washing machines. And often enough, the necessary toolkit in their shop.
Upgraded every old MacBook (2009pro, 2015 pro) I had with bigger harddrives and did small repairs with ifixit instructions. But you notice they get less repairable over time. The 2009 thing was built like a tank and you could upgrade ram, replace a broken GPU and this thing over all felt very repairable. I still works but isn’t that useful any more 16 years after release. 2015 was way less repairable.
Yeah sure, repairing devices got harder over years and some devices simply aren’t repairable at all (at least not for laypeople who aren’t training or experienced in certain techniques like soldering) or you need very special equipment. But the manuals are less of a problem.
Re-Legalize Right To Repair and pirates will take care of the rest
The old cars were also designed in such a way that you had to understand how the thing was constructed and functioned in order to make it work. Nowadays, I only barely understand how shifting gears works mechanically and drive an automatic. Modern cars do much of the work for you, much like modern computers.
Cars also used to be a lot less reliable. Knowing how to change a spark plug for example used to be common knowledge.
My library gives us free access to Chilton online. It’s not the best for everything, but all of the information comes from the factory service manual. Plus you can find a lot of information online. You just have to learn what to look for.
There’s loads of places scattered around the internet where full service manuals are hosted for free for nearly any consumer product that has one available. The trouble is actually finding them…
Artificial scarcity enforced by capitalism.
Analog mechanical systems are so much more intuitive than digital ones though. The ability to physically see and touch and connect and tinker with things feels vastly more human than pointing and clicking and cursing and screaming.
Not unintuitive for lack of trying - some big minds tried hard and failed. Jerome Bruner, Seymour Papert, Alan Kay, Bret Victor.
Alan and Bret are mentioned in the “Sick sad history of computer-aided collaboration”:
https://www.quora.com/Who-invented-the-modern-computer-look-and-feel/answer/Harri-K-Hiltunen
Never thought of it this way, but you could be right
Such a shame americans seems to think the only thing they need is to be american now. Don’t get me wrong, you’re still the most innovative (with europe?) but that’s what it feels like from the outside anyway.
Feel free to tell me I’m wrong though, it’s just a feeling 😅!
I think OP mentioned “a generation of Americans” because that’s the example they thought of, not because they think being American made the people exceptional.
You’re not wrong though - a lot of Americans definitely seem to think that just “being American” is some kind of accomplishment in and of itself. Meritless jingoism is intense here.
But I don’t see it being related to the previous comment.