User:SphericalCow509

Why I Repair
Why are you reading this rubbish when you could be learning to fix something? Ok then. I have an engineering background. I got my degree in 2016. Though it’s in mechanical not electrical. Everything electrical I know is self-taught since then. I went to a local community college, and then a public in-state university. It still cost me nearly $100K in loans. I figured it was fine cause engineers still get jobs right? Nope, these days you need the knowledge and a charming personality to get hired. Why do you think I went to engineering school? I don’t exactly have a shining personality. Never could get hired as an engineer. Heard “not assertive enough” so many times the phrase gives me anxiety now. I fell down the employment ladder until I ended up just working minimum wage retail. Barely enough to cover student loan payments every month. Definitely not enough for rent or utilities… or living. I started to look for ways to make money on the side. I tried a few different things. Some were ok to make a few bucks, but nothing that was more than a side gig. While thrifting and reselling I noticed broken electronics in some of the stores, and I thought, “I bet I’m capable of learning how to fix that stuff.” Why electronics? Because it’s available broken, can be fixed, and sold with room for profit. I’m an analytical person. I could learn to do any analytical task. Electronics are an opportunity. Take any opportunity you can get. It turned out better than I thought. At work I ran the numbers in my head and realized that I was making more per hour of my time repairing things than I was at my $8/hr job. So I quit. That was last year, and it’s been great since then. My income is tied to my willingness to work longer, and my ability to learn and improve. So much better than making the same wage no matter how hard you work hoping someone will notice.

 Takeaway : The repair industry creates opportunities for people that don’t excel at walking the tightrope of modern employment. These people’s lives and the benefits to society from their useful work would be wasted when traditional employment considers them unemployable. They would be wasted… if repair wasn’t allowed. Some of them are wasted because of unnecessary roadblocks. The push to waste all of them has been creeping up for decades and is now looming in the near future. That’s why repair matters.

I told you it was rubbish. Now I bet you regret not fixing something instead.