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Comment by gumby | Hacker News Reader

I grew up fixing everything -- darning holes, repairing appliances, fixing furniture etc. It was super annoying as a kid but it seemed we had no choice. It's not like the neighbours could afford to do otherwise either.

As an adult I appreciate it -- often it is easier to fix something than to replace it. But yesterday I chucked out a laundry sorter because the repair cost was higher than simply getting a new one. I found it difficult to do.

Edit: I repaired a sentence with an improper verb tense.

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Good feedback. I think it's worth considering that most people aren't able to properly diagnose or troubleshoot something that's broken; especially electronics or mechanical things.

I'll try to add questions that will prompt users to reconsider their submission and give readers an idea if this is a legit failure.

Questions could include:

- Did the item break during or after the warranty period?

- Have you contacted the manufacturer for help?

- Would this problem prevent you from purchasing something else from this brand?

- Have you searched for reports of this issue online? What condition was the item in prior to this particular issue?

> I think it's worth considering that most people aren't able to properly diagnose or troubleshoot something that's broken; especially electronics or mechanical things.

This is quite sad to consider. For a device like a telephone or laptop it’s quite understandable: adding the affordance for many (though not all) repairs would add cost and decrease reliability.

But there’s a kind of learned helplessness in not being able to dismantle and consider something manufactured. I’m a backpacker and the lines between make/modify/improvise/repair are often hard to find. And I think it’s also a kind of stance: the same self confidence and debugging perspective are required to fix a tent and figure out who should be president.

I fix some stuff even if it’s more expensive than buying new one. It’s nice to keep old things going, not to produce waste and often times the new thing is cheap because it’s not ’made the way they used to make them’

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