The work of maintenance is ultimately a way of parsing and knowing a thing and deciding, over and over, what it’s worth. “Maintenance should be seen as a noble craft,”

Maintenance isn’t a program. It’s a practice.

That’s the difference between maintenance and repair. Repair is when you fix something that’s already broken. Maintenance is about making something last.

Maintenance isn’t a program. It’s a practice.

The way the world is constructed today is no longer legible, politically or technically. Objects come and go under mysterious circumstances. Cars and trains either run or someone else fixes them. The objects in our lives are shipped to us from faraway lands, and they work until they don’t. Discarded, they get hauled away in the early morning by... See more

That’s the difference between maintenance and repair. Repair is when you fix something that’s already broken. Maintenance is about making something last.

The noble but undervalued craft of maintenance could help preserve modernity’s finest achievements, from public transit systems to power grids, and serve as a useful framework for addressing climate change

Maintenance mostly happens out of sight, mysteriously. If we notice it, it’s a nuisance. When road crews block off sections of highway to fix potholes, we treat it as an obstruction, not a vital and necessary process.

It’s not strictly necessary — or at least it doesn’t seem to be until things start falling apart. It’s chronically undervalued.