<div dir="ltr">I think of farming and food production (my grandparents were small or family farmers though they actually had or used huge tracts of land because few people lived in that area--north dakota) and i knew people who lived partly by hunting , gathering and gardening in WV. At one time a large fraction of US population was involved in farming--like 50%. Now they say its just 3% (though there is a much larger population). However you have a huge supply chain for food---trucking, road maintenance for all these trucks, energy industry for transport, processing food (sometimes into junk or conveniance food, bottled water, coca cola, plastic, huge stores with cleaning , stocking , clerks and security personnel and more) . <br><br>So the 3% figure which makes things seem simpler, like GIS, involves another kind of complexity. I used to have order paper topographic maps for my hiking trips---now i can get them on my smart phone in like 5 minutes (if i can remember the websites)--very simple. But making a smart phone and websites is complex. And even having a smartphone makes my life more complex---have to learn how to use it, and not lose or break it, or have it stolen. </div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Aug 7, 2019 at 2:45 AM Hanlie Pretorius <<a href="mailto:hanlie.pretorius@gmail.com">hanlie.pretorius@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">I found this article very thought provoking - thank you for compiling<br>
it. I wrote down some of my thoughts here, perhaps not much new for<br>
people on this list.<br>
<br>
Often people assert that the 1980s marked a turning point in the<br>
economy with regard to spending priorities, implying that before then<br>
maintenance was more of a priority. Does this mean that economic<br>
reasons are the major ones for lack of maintenance? I suspect so.<br>
<br>
Was anything else different in the past or was maintenance a problem<br>
throughout human history?<br>
<br>
What about the boredom factor? I sometimes find it difficult to<br>
motivate myself to brush my teeth because it's such a repetitive and<br>
boring activity.<br>
<br>
I believe people start appreciating maintenance when they have to do<br>
it themselves or if they have to pay directly to have it done<br>
(provided it's done properly). Perhaps payment for maintenance should<br>
not be part of general taxes, it should be a specific levy that can be<br>
traced back to actual maintenance performed.<br>
<br>
The more complex our society gets, the more extensive and intensive<br>
the maintenance requirements get. Under the guise of simplifying our<br>
lives, technology has pushed maintenance to the back stage where other<br>
people have to think for us. In my industry (Geographic Information<br>
Systems), the move away from desktop software to the web has<br>
simplified (the quality of the simplification is debatable) GIS for<br>
users not trained in GIS. But behind the scenes, my work has become<br>
far more complex.<br>
<br>
Perhaps we humans just can't help ourselves when it comes to<br>
maintenance, just like we can't help repeating the cycles of<br>
civilisation rise, complication and collapse.<br>
<br>
I live in South Africa where the visible evidence of no maintenance or<br>
incompetent maintenance is just downright scary.<br>
<br>
Regards<br>
Hanlie<br>
<br>
<br>
> Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2019 10:09:55 -0400<br>
> From: lee vinsel <<a href="mailto:lee@themaintainers.org" target="_blank">lee@themaintainers.org</a>><br>
> To: <a href="mailto:Themaintainers@lists.stevens.edu" target="_blank">Themaintainers@lists.stevens.edu</a><br>
> Subject: [Themaintainers] Why Do People Neglect Maintenance?<br>
> Message-ID:<br>
> <CAFfY7rEZbMyYg1jr2dWYtubzU5-j1JniB1PAZj+MP2==<a href="mailto:GmfSwA@mail.gmail.com" target="_blank">GmfSwA@mail.gmail.com</a>><br>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"<br>
><br>
> Hey, everybody.<br>
><br>
> The three Maintainers co-directors - Andy Russell, Jess Meyerson, and<br>
> I - pulled<br>
> together a blog post laying out the factors/explanations we often hear<br>
> about why maintenance is neglected.<br>
> <<a href="http://themaintainers.org/blog/2019/7/30/why-do-people-neglect-maintenance" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://themaintainers.org/blog/2019/7/30/why-do-people-neglect-maintenance</a>><br>
> As is often the case these days, this post attempts to echo back what we've<br>
> been hearing from others - including all the folks on this list!<br>
><br>
> And as always, we are especially keen to hear feedback from you all. We're<br>
> hoping this post kickstarts discussion about how to think and theorize<br>
> about and empirically study these issues. Please give us feedback in anyway<br>
> you see fit - in the blog comments, on Twitter, via private/direct<br>
> messages, such as email, and ESPECIALLY on this list!!! :-)<br>
><br>
> Hope everyone is doing well.<br>
><br>
> Lee<br>
><br>
> --<br>
> Co-Director<br>
> The Maintainers<br>
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</blockquote></div>