Comment by balaji1 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by balaji1 | Hacker News Reader

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Maintenance should be outsourced a lot more. As in get pros to come and fix things.

Maintenance doesn't seem much in demand in the US in a residential/consumer context, probably because it is expensive and other reasons like the grandparent comment: > We simply do not appreciate Maintenance people...

Maintenance and service is much more common in India. There are young and old folks in a thriving industry for repairs and maintenance. You will see they are super knowledgable in their vocation and they get stuff fixed well and quick.

Though I do think these industries are shrinking in India - i.e "catching up" to the West. In the US, middle-class probably only services cars and heavy equipment at home. And more things are manufactured to not be maintained but replaced - a weird example is mattresses and pillows.

Of course there must be a lot more servicing happening in non-residential contexts, both in the West and in India.

> simplify your life more and more including the things in your life

This is such an underrated hack. Can't find it now - but think there is a Naval tweet about how getting rid of things is a huge help for creating peace in life.

I've found that the problem is, the pros typically won't do a better job than I would do myself. In fact, I got my uncle to fix my fridge after numerous places simply said "we don't repair fridges" (despite being an "appliance repair" company), another place thought it was a certain failed component, another thought it was a different part -- until they replaced that part and found that another part had a problem.. then they found the ACTUAL cause of the problem, a clogged tube. Which they don't/can't fix. Meanwhile, I find a video of a guy literally working on side of the road in India who clears this tube nearly effortlessly in like 5 minutes. "Professionals" are often just "a company that happens to officially do the thing you want", but the degree of craftsmanship is frequently absolutely pathetic. Oh yeah, one of those fridge repair places scratched the hell out of my floor by dragging the fridge without placing a protective plexiglass/plastic down first. It's like no one cares to do a good, thorough job anymore.

Ouch rough experience. And probably those appliance repair charged you so much more for the quality of service or even to just show up and take a look.

Preventative maintainability of modern things seems so low - either tech is over complicated or has short lifespan or take too much effort/time/money. Maintenance also requires a network of appliance service companies tied up to the OEMs - and frankly they should be selling subscriptions and coming by to service appliances proactively - kinda like our dentists. The incentive structures are probably not right for this.

Yeah so far every place is like "it's not worth it to fix"... it's like... really? It's not worth getting a $4k+ fridge working again with a few $hundred of parts and a couple hours of labour? Let's just throw it in the trash and drop another $4k+ to replace it with a "similar" fridge (which then doesn't match the other appliances in the kitchen)! This mentality of "just buy a new one" is so prevalent everywhere :(

And the fact that human time is always the more expensive portion of any maintenance work.

Sure, some things it makes sense to trust in those more skilled than you, with the proper toolsets and experience to finish a job correctly and back the result with a warranty, like larger vehicle maintenance tasks, plumbing, and major structural home remodeling.

But... so many things are not worth the premium that it boggles the mind.

Changing a light switch? 10 minutes and a screwdriver is all you need to save a $75 house call.

Replacing a door handle? 10 minutes and a screwdriver is all you need to save a $75 house call.

If you are willing, able bodied, and strong enough to handle the appropriate tools, then you owe it to yourself and your wallet to handle the things that you can handle and take the money you save and use that to help cover the things you cannot.

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