Obsolete skills?

[vakkotaur]

A few days ago there was an article on Slashdot about "obsolete skills" - the things that one has learned but are no longer all that useful most of the time. For example, it has been years since I've dialed a rotary telephone. This started with a blog entry: "Obsolete Skills". As a result of that little article someone started a wiki at obsoleteskills.com and people have been adding to it. Not everything is truly obsolete[1] and some entries are outright jokes.

A couple days ago I did engage in one of the supposedly obsolete skills: small appliance repair. Many small appliances are now generally inexpensive and quite reliable. The result is that it's easy for a person to figure he's gotten his money's worth out of the gadget by the time it fails. Much of that reliability has come from technology that is not easy to repair, so there isn't that much incentive to try. Also the standard warning that there are no tubes to be changed (a once common do-it-yourself repair): NO USER SERVICEABLE PARTS INSIDE might dissuade some. So why attempt a repair? Why not? If it doesn't work, no big deal, the gadget was already broken anyway. And if it does work, I get more use of the gadget, don't have to deal with its disposal, and get the satisfaction of having repaired the thing. Besides, I'm old enough that just throwing something away without considering repair just plain offends me.[2]

The toaster I've had for several years was only toasting the bread in on one side, the side facing the center heating element. The outside elements weren't heating at all. Figuring it was already broken and so what damage could I really do, I took it apart and after a while found the problem. What looked like it had been a weld had given, and evidently there had been enough arcing over time to eat a hole in some of the metal that was left. There was enough metal left to fold over to get a good contact again, and the toaster seems to be working right. I expect this repair to be temporary. It's not a proper weld and I expect that the joint will eventually fail and be beyond simple repair. But I don't need to go get a new toaster right now.

---

[1] While I might not need to adjust a manual choke to start a car, I do need to adjust the choke to start the snowblower.

[2] No, I didn't attempt to repair the old microwave a while back. I did consider it, and safety was a big consideration.

Comments

[doodlesthegreat.livejournal.com]

There's another advantage in futzing around with old appliances. You learn how they work, and if you have the right mindset, start taking interest in making them better. This is how every scientist, engineer, and mechanic I've ever met got their start. It's also how Jamie and Adam do business. =};-3