[Themaintainers] Question from a journalist

[cj]

Hi Lee,

Am reading: Don't just do it, think it too: on learning with Gilbert Ryle | Aeon Essays <https://aeon.co/essays/dont-just-do-it-think-it-too-on-learning-with-gilbert-ryle?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=84dba61ea1-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_04_18_01_39&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-84dba61ea1-68667489>  which may be a total tangent to this but got me thinking about effortless maintenance for want of a better label.  The piece speaks of the practices that don’t easily get converted into words, to notions of the amnesia of expert mainainers and more. 

Best,
c


On 20 Apr 2019, at 1:20 am, Lee Vinsel <lee.vinsel at gmail.com> wrote:

Hi, Lynn!!

I'm sure others will have other examples, including examples that should be coming to my mind (it's Friday!), but what first comes to me are some examples that David Edgerton highlights in Shock of the Old of bicycle and radio repair sectors in, I think, Japan leading to the birth of new (innovative) industries there, including the much larger electronics industry. My copy of Shock is at home rather than here at my office, but I can get you a citation if needed. 

I'm very interested generally in repetition, or how I think about and teach it more often as . . .  human habit . . . as well as organizational routines. Both habits and routines are central to the history/sociology/economics of maintenance, I think.

Best,

Lee

On Fri, Apr 19, 2019 at 5:25 AM Lynn Berger <lynn at decorrespondent.nl <mailto:lynn at decorrespondent.nl>> wrote:
Hello Maintainers!

Short version: I'm a journalist working on a story about the value of repetition and why we usually overlook it because we're more interested in novelty. I draw a parallel to how we tend to prefer innovation to maintenance and want to point out that this is silly, not least because maintenance is often a condition for innovation. And now I'm wondering: do the people on this list have some examples of when maintenance work led to new insights that led to innovation? 

Slightly longer version:
My name is Lynn Berger and I've been on this list for some time. I have a PhD in communications from Columbia University (I studied 19th century photography and the law) but for the last six years I've been working as a journalist at De Correspondent, an online journalism platform based in Amsterdam. I cover technology and culture there; a few years ago I wrote a piece about the rediscovery of maintenance, with pride of place for the maintainers. (Those who read Dutch can find it here <https://decorrespondent.nl/6816/he-innovators-gamechangers-en-disrupters-vergeten-jullie-het-onderhoud-niet/227102304-f476506a>, and a short followup I wrote on repair, here <https://decorrespondent.nl/7414/waarom-het-recht-op-repareren-ons-allemaal-aangaat/247027066-a9e9bbdc>.)

Currently I'm working on a story about the value of repetition and how we tend to overlook it because we're more interested in novelty. I draw a parallel to how we tend to prefer innovation to maintenance and want to point out that this is missing the point, not least because maintenance is often a condition for innovation. 

And now I'm wondering: do the people on this list have some examples of when maintenance work led to new insights that led to innovation? 

I'd be grateful for a few good and concrete examples. And for your time, of course!

Thank you in advance and keep up the good work (!)
Lynn.

Lynn Berger
De Correspondent <http://www.decorrespondent.nl/lynnberger>
Barentzplein 7BG 
1013 NJ Amsterdam
@LynnBerger1984 <https://twitter.com/LynnBerger1984>
06 24102193


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