January 6th, 2015

A Tinker’s Damn Is Worth More than You Think

I spent some time today thinking about a Slashdot article bemoaning the demise of the gadget fixer. In my generation, he was the guy who repaired my television. And yes Virginia, there really were people who fixed televisions. No, not taking them to recycle…I mean really repairing them so they could be used again. The same went for toasters, refrigerators and dishwashers. We had a guy in town who even fixed our radios.

There is no doubt that we live in a throwaway society. We see it most every recycle day throughout our streets and neighborhoods. Flat screen monitors, computers…even appliances that cost hundreds of dollars. Standing stoically, awaiting their fate to be crushed and sold for scrap.

If the fact be known, my nonprofit prospers greatly from this 21st century attitude. I should say, the kids who receive computers from my nonprofit prosper. 60 percent of the stuff we get as donations are in good shape. The only thing wrong with them is that the owner wanted something new. We’re to the point where the donated desktops are solid core duos with at least 4 gigs of RAM. Two years ago, I would have done dirty deeds dirt cheap to get donations like that. But what we are receiving now is just fine.

So, what about the other 40 percent of the stuff we receive? Do we fix those? You can bet we do…the ones that are cost effective to fix anyway. Now, when we get that stretch of mid 2000 Dells with the swollen and bursting capacitors, no; those are cannibalized for parts and the rest goes to recycle. But those are getting fewer and further in between.

The first time I opened a computer I was a bit intimidated. So many components that do so many things. So many failures that could be attributed to so many other reasons or components. As it is with most things though, once you dive in and get wet, the water isn’t that bad. And neither is repairing a computer.

This fall, I was humbled by a gentleman who traveled many miles to get to Ohio LinuxFest 2014. His sole reason to be there was to introduce me as the closing keynote. I didn’t know a thing about this until the speaker chairman for the conference, Vance Kochenderfer, asked if it would be okay for him to give my intro. Of course, I said it would be fine.

He referred to me as “a fixer.” That’s a term we don’t hear much these days. I take my job of “fixing” in stride, and maybe with an equal amount of pride. But I’m not talking about just the physical fixing of things like computers or clock radios. I am also a fixer of attitudes and beliefs. I strive to repair the dream…the idea that young people can do anything they truly want to do.

Many of the kids we help at Reglue are from, uh…unfulfilling environments, whether that’s a home with no stability or a foster environment where the kid feels that he or she is nothing but a pair of shoes with a monthly subsidy payment stapled to them. And more than once, we’ve been the catalyst for having an abused or neglected child removed from an unstable or abusive environment. One needs to tread carefully when bringing about this sort of change, but fortunately, we’ve batted a thousand in our interventions.

But that’s not the end of the story between those kids and Reglue, which is my real point. We have summer clinics and activities specifically for those kids. I mean, we’ve intervened in their lives already; it’s nothing short of our duty to help them achieve their dreams in any small way we can.

In the past four years, we’ve had over 100 of these kids march through our facility at Reglue, taking part in everything from our girlzRGeekz2 girl mentoring program to the HeliOS Project computer camps we hold during the summer. What we are doing is preparing a new generation of fixers…and don’t you doubt for one minute that they are anything less.

Some of these young people go on to earn computer science or engineering degrees. They go forward schooled in “the old ways.” We’ve taught them that some things do not need to be thrown away. That someone out there can use what they fix…if only they take the time to fix it.

So no, I’m not going to nod my head in agreement with some academic’s wringing of hands, worried that the latest generation is not appreciating the things that can be fixed. There are fixers in any generation. There are people who see beyond burned wires and bent metal. They see past the the twisted frame and broken glass.

Some people know what to do with that stuff, and they will continue to repair, replenish and re-purpose things of value. I believe it’s an inherent part within many of us. Maybe the professor is just looking in the wrong places. Maybe he or she is looking at statistics instead of shoes on the ground and hands that are cut up and bleeding from pulling a power supply.

Maybe this professor needs to spend a week at my shop.

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