[Themaintainers] Another reason for ignoring maintenance--perception of it as "boring"

Thu Aug 1 14:16:09 EDT 2019

Hi, all--

I'd suggest one other issue, though it may be part of one of your existing items (human psychology? cultural myths?): maintenance is perceived as boring--to do, to study, to manage. I would argue that it isn't inherently boring and can be fascinating to study, but it is an uphill battle convincing people to pay attention to work on it.

In terms of studying maintenance-related topics, my books Control through Communication (which focused on routine intrafirm communication such as memos) and Structuring the Information Age (which focused on routine maintenance of life insurance policies through billing and accounting) both suffered from initial perceptions that these topics were boring. And my new (co-authored with Craig N. Murphy) book, Engineering Rules: Global Standard Setting Since 1880<https://www.amazon.com/Engineering-Rules-Standard-Business-Technology-ebook/dp/B07KMCXQR8/ref=sr_1_2?keywords=Engineering+Rules%3A+Global+Standard+Setting+Since+1880&qid=1564683028&s=books&sr=1-2>, like Andy Russell's Open standards and the Digital Age<https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Open+standards+and+the+digital+age&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss> and Lee Vinsel's just published Moving Violations: Automobiles, Experts, and Regulations in the United States,<https://www.amazon.com/Moving-Violations-Automobiles-Regulations-Technology-ebook/dp/B07KMBL73Q/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Lee+Vinsel&qid=1564681719&s=books&sr=1-1> face an uphill battle against the assumption that standardization, like other forms of maintenance, is boring to do and to study. This assumption can be countered. Andy does so by focusing on new aspects such as open standards and the undeniably new digital age, and Lee does so by focusing on the automobile--a cultural icon--and writing about it in an engaging way. Both make their topics highly interesting to me, certainly. Craig and I have tried to counter the bias against boring by making the people and organizations involved in standardization more interesting. Nevertheless, when you say that you study standards, or maintenance of any form, I find you tend to get one of two reactions (whether from other scholars or from the general public): the majority reaction is glazed eyes and an assumption of boringness; the minority reaction from those who "get it" is to be fascinated.

One important thing that Andy, Lee, Jess Meyerson, and other co-directors of the Maintainers, attendees of the Maintainers conferences, and members of the Maintainers list have done is to begin to combat the assumption that maintenance is boring and thus not worth our attention, and this is an important step forward. You are doing important, consciousness-raising work, for which I thank you!

JoAnne Yates
Sloan Distinguished Professor of Management
MIT E62-335
100 Main St.
Cambridge, MA 02142
Engineering Rules<https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/content/engineering-rules>

 [https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/sites/default/files/covers/9781421428901.jpg]

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Today's Topics:

   1. Why Do People Neglect Maintenance? (lee vinsel)
   2. Re: Why Do People Neglect Maintenance? (Ishi Crew)

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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 31 Jul 2019 10:09:55 -0400
From: lee vinsel <lee at themaintainers.org<mailto:lee at themaintainers.org>>
To: Themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu<mailto:Themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu>
Subject: [Themaintainers] Why Do People Neglect Maintenance?
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Hey, everybody.

The three Maintainers co-directors - Andy Russell, Jess Meyerson, and I - pulled together a blog post laying out the factors/explanations we often hear about why maintenance is neglected.
<http://themaintainers.org/blog/2019/7/30/why-do-people-neglect-maintenance>
As is often the case these days, this post attempts to echo back what we've been hearing from others - including all the folks on this list!

And as always, we are especially keen to hear feedback from you all. We're hoping this post kickstarts discussion about how to think and theorize about and empirically study these issues. Please give us feedback in anyway you see fit - in the blog comments, on Twitter, via private/direct messages, such as email, and ESPECIALLY on this list!!! :-)

Hope everyone is doing well.

Lee

--
Co-Director
The Maintainers
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Message: 2
Date: Thu, 1 Aug 2019 06:56:38 -0400
From: Ishi Crew <mediaentropy at gmail.com<mailto:mediaentropy at gmail.com>>
To: lee vinsel <lee at themaintainers.org<mailto:lee at themaintainers.org>>
Cc: Themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu<mailto:Themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu>
Subject: Re: [Themaintainers] Why Do People Neglect Maintenance?
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I commented on the blog post.  While i am sympathetic to views such as 'socialism', 'anti-capitalism' , 'degrowth', 'peace not war', 'democracy' , 'green new deal',  'bs jobs', 'unconditional  basic income',  and even 'environmentalism', and I know these are popular terms or  'brand names' or slogans people can rally behind, I think they are a bit too too vague to  be very useful apart from  some short term protest or social movement.

  (The comment about the  US Chamber of Commerce I fully agree with ---not a good group, with a long track record  of bad behavior--e.g. Arch Coal in
WV.)

The one thing lacking in discussions about 'maintenance' is 'exactly what should be maintained?', and also who should do it, how do you decide?
There was a mention of Russ Roberts and a cleaning woman at a conference; I've been to many conferences, and cleaning staff---a form of
maintenance---are rarely invited to the conference.   Usually cleaning
staff do one form of maintenance, while students, professors, and people in think tanks or NGOs are seen to do another form of 'maintenance' --eg write papers about how to optimally organize the world.  Often they leave out of their analyses things like cleaning, and maintenance workers such as cleaning staff.  And this is discussed in point 8 of the blog post.

I'm all for empirical and analytical study of these issues---which I view
as part of 'system science' or 'complexity theory'.   But these are not
just theoretical issues; they are practical ones as well.  And you have to 'cross the t's and dot the i's'.  Deal with every issue--not just organizing conferences, funding NGOs,  and publishing papers.

 My area is riddled with problems of violence, poverty, addiction, inequality, intolerance, pollution, consumerism, and health---and its where the maintainers conference is scheduled to be if i recall (Trinity college).
    (I haven't really decided whether to attend although its local--it may be unaffordable for me, and I'm not part of the 'in crowd' who goes to these conferences.  I'm more a part of the 'out crowd' who are discussed at the conferences--the social problems outside on the street, who are rarely asked what might be relevant to solve their problems--which they will often acknowledge they have, but feel they are powerless to do  anything about-and are often labelled as mentally ill or unstable, psychopathic, antisocial, irresponsible, uneducated and unintelligent, incompetent, non-empathetic, pathetic etc.  )

People in 'out crowds' (just like the 'in crowd' ) just 'maintain' --try to keep their sanity and their lives, and most try to avoid causing harm and
stay out of trouble.   (Alot of 'maintenance' goes into things like
prisons, criminal justice system, police and health care---all of which deal with problems which are likely mostly preventible. Who wants to spend their lives doing  maintenance repairing problems that shouldn't exist in the first place? )

On Wed, Jul 31, 2019 at 10:10 AM lee vinsel <lee at themaintainers.org<mailto:lee at themaintainers.org>> wrote:

> Hey, everybody.
>
> The three Maintainers co-directors - Andy Russell, Jess Meyerson, and
> I - pulled together a blog post laying out the factors/explanations we
> often hear about why maintenance is neglected.
> <http://themaintainers.org/blog/2019/7/30/why-do-people-neglect-mainte
> nance> As is often the case these days, this post attempts to echo
> back what we've been hearing from others - including all the folks on
> this list!
>
> And as always, we are especially keen to hear feedback from you all.
> We're hoping this post kickstarts discussion about how to think and
> theorize about and empirically study these issues. Please give us
> feedback in anyway you see fit - in the blog comments, on Twitter, via
> private/direct messages, such as email, and ESPECIALLY on this list!!!
> :-)
>
> Hope everyone is doing well.
>
> Lee
>
> --
> Co-Director
> The Maintainers
> _______________________________________________
> Themaintainers mailing list
> Themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu<mailto:Themaintainers at lists.stevens.edu>
> https://lists.stevens.edu/mailman/listinfo/themaintainers
>
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