Yeah, but you didn’t have to leave the house, which is worth a lot.
Or talk to anyone!
It’s not about the money - it’s about sending a message
sometimes it’s not about solving the immediate problem, but about making sure it doesn’t happen again.
(literally “fixed” my alarm clock this week after it’s plug broke off in the outlet by giving it a $10 right angle plug that won’t be under any significant strain.)
Sometimes it’s about learning to fix things more than it is about fixing the thing.
I regularly just take shit apart when it fails even if i have no intention of fixing it.
When you can’t earn money, then, time isn’t money, Money IS Money! Sure that device costs $5 to replace, but with those two hours that you weren’t earning cash, you saved $5 that you can spend on whatever your heart desires. When you aren’t earning, save.
You can be making money anytime nowadays if you’ve got a driver’s license. Not that I’d recommend it though.
Don’t most of those jobs require you to supply your own vehicle, fuel and other vehicle-related expenses?
They do which is why I wouldn’t recommend it.
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And also the tax/pension/health/VAT deductions from money earned is x% for varying scary values of x, but the equivalent from money “avoided” AKA “money you didn’t need to earn because you didn’t need to spend it because you fixed stuff yourself” is 0%. That is the reason DIY, Right-To-Repair, barter systems, etc are all demonised institutionally. They are wedge-issues which run counter to the fostered futility-narrative that keeps the wage-slaves quietly running on their mouse-wheels, and out of the way of the ownership-class while they constantly “repair” society to their liking.
I fix stuff when it’s harder than buying a new one just because it’s rewarding. I guess the guy in the picture embodies that feeling but I don’t picture it that way, it’s just how I was brought up. Same reason I make meals instead of ordering doordash.
I see someone owns a 3d printer.
I still have my CRT TV still open due I do not have the time to buy a 16v capacitor. Has been like, 2 weeks now. Wow. I need to fix it
If you haven’t yet, go order that cap. It’ll take like 7 minutes tops.
Finally!!! It’s done.
Hell yeah! Nice work dude!
yea, fix that tv it’s going to be the weekend’s adventure
I personally prefer to break a slightly broken device further
I’ve gotten shit for taking apart the filter screen on my toilet’s filler and cleaning out the sediment when I could just spend $20 to replace it. It’s really not even that hard once you figure out the trick for spreading the clips holding it together. They really didn’t want this to be user fixable.
I personally designed and 3D printed a case to hold 4 rechargeable batteries, so I could charge them with 5 Volts from a USB cable, instead of buying a new charger.
Fun Fact: this ruins the batteries. Gave up on designing myself and downloaded a design for a battery-adapter (plastic shell + 1 screw that makes small battery fit in big devices). My stockpile of small batteries then lasted me 2 months before I finally bought a charger and new rechargeables.
True. It isn’t always about a cost/labour analysis. Sometimes I want to repair something to learn how to do it. Sometimes I want to repair something because even though ‘my time is valuable’, I hate the idea of throwing out something I know will rot in the landfill for a thousand years. Sometimes I’m just attached to the thing and afraid I won’t find a replacement that is as good (which is often the case).
I hate our throwaway culture, it’s good to know how to fix things even if it isn’t technically ‘cost effective’ to do so.
Also, I think that you shouldn’t put a price on your free time off work? You wouldn’t be working anyway, why put a price tag on it?
Absolutely – I hate how we’ve been raised to think of time in monetary terms; I have to remind myself on days off that “No, I do not need to do anything it’s my day off! I can sleep in… no need to be productive …”
Also it’s fun.
It challenges me, relaxes me, and I get a cool experience out of it
All of these reasons but I also just enjoy the experience of fixing something. It feeds the soul in some deep way for me
Karl Marx’s theory of alienation describes the separation and estrangement of people from their work, their wider world, their human nature, and their selves. Alienation is a consequence of the division of labour in a capitalist society, wherein a human being’s life is lived as a mechanistic part of a social class
I was living in a shithole apartment with a noisy fridge that the landlord wouldn’t fix and complaining to my therapist about it. He suggested I fix it, which was a completely alien idea to me at the time. It was a lot less complicated than I expected, I learned a lot about how it worked, and my self-confidence and perceived control over my circumstances skyrocketed.
Me with all my Koss headphones (looking at you KPH30i!), and everything with a depleted rechargeable battery.
Doing stuff against planned obsolesce and throwaway culture are much more meaningful than recycling.
If you are a hobbyist, you can break them in to components and build something new. Preferably something that doesn’t burn your house down or electrocute someone. Stay under 50V.
Repair > replace.
It’s not just about how much money it costs.
Less waste thrown into a dump, gain knowledge of how to fix the issue, can help others with fixing the same issue, and sends the message that we’d rather repair than replace.
Hell yeah brother.
I legit contracted with an OEM over Alibaba to make a custom piece of glass to adhere to the new LCD screen to replace the broken screen in my wife’s Playdate.
Though in that case it was like $150 total.
Damn, sounds impressive! The experience that inspired this meme for me was swapping the buttons in my mouse for newer ones from a dead donor mouse, which admittedly took much less than 2 hours haha
Imagine the reduction in e-waste if everyone in high school took a short course in how to use a soldering iron, solder-sucker/braid and heat-gun to replace common bits in consumer electronics. So many things could be saved that get thrown out only due to a bad microswitch or cracked solder joint to a USB or headphone connector …
When I went to trade school I jumped all over the opportunity to learn how to solder for exactly that reason
When they went to school, my mother learned how to use a sewing machine, my father learned basic carpentry, and they both learned how to shoot and maintain an AK-47. Although the UUSR may not have been the perfect paradise that many people make it out to be, it does feel like modern school systems could learn a thing or two from the communists.
That’s so great. You should be proud.
There’s lots of costs that don’t show up in the 5$ value. Considering limited resources, the value in human lives tied with pollution, the pollution you are not generating during the two hours of hobbying…
I think the math checks out most of the time.
