[Themaintainers] My Review of Stewart Brand's *Maintenance: Of Everything*, vol. 1.

[Repair Cafe Collective India]

Hi Lee,

I totally agree with you.

After reading your book innovation delusion and listening to Andy I can
quote examples from Indian context. I grew-up here, studied and lived in
big cities albiet from a marginalized community. My parents brought us out
from that muck.

I am committed to bring more such examples from the Indian context for
triggering this conversation. I am convinced that there is a need for this.

Thanks for bringing up this discussion!

Regards,
Purna


On Tue, 28 Apr, 2026, 11:30 am Lee Vinsel, <lee.vinsel at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi, all.
>
> MIT Technology Review asked me to review Stewart Brand's new book,
> *Maintenance: Of Everything*, vol. 1
> <https://www.technologyreview.com/2026/04/17/1135408/book-review-stewart-brand-fixing-everything-maintenance/?utm_source=staff_social_outreach&utm_medium=tr_staff_social&utm_campaign=social&utm_content=guestbp>.
> Knowing Brand's earlier work well, I went into it with lots of questions,
> including about how Brand would treat labor, politics, and social
> structure. But the book was a lot worse than I expected. Beyond the foibles
> I anticipated, it just isn't very well put together. For example, it's
> loaded up with long block quotations and often feels like notes for a
> future work.
>
> I only briefly touch on my biggest disappointment in the review, though:
> Brand makes the empty and simply wrong claim that his book is the first
> account of maintenance we have. He could have used his massive platform for
> highlighting the work of junior, marginalized scholars who have been
> working on this topic for years now. To be clear, I'm not talking about me
> and Andy, who have gotten plenty of love for one lifetime. Over time, The
> Maintainers became more and more about the community, and there is a ton of
> great work in this network - a network Brand knows well - that could have
> been elevated and amplified. It's a shame.
>
> Otherwise, life is grand. I'm involved in a local community tool library
> here in Virginia's New River Valley and continue to work on maintenance and
> repair in other ways too. I hope to share about some of these things soon.
>
> And I hope you all are doing well, too.
>
> Lee
>
>
>
> --
> Associate Professor
> Department of Science, Technology, and Society
> Virginia Tech
> leevinsel.com
> @STS_News
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>
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