Exclusivity

The other day I decided to dismantle my Nintendo Wii in hopes of doing a quick repair job. It was pretty late at night and I was highly distracted, so it ended up with me passing out with a bunch of parts scattered across my room and desk.

The way they assemble those things in the first place is such a mystery to me. There's about 50 hidden screws, disguised under sticker flaps and secretly removable plastic sections. How long must that take to build?

It's part of the whole 'right to repair' thing, no doubt. They don't want anyone fixing their devices themselves, since the alternatives are paying for a professional repair or giving up and buying whatever the latest console replacement is. So they make the steps as complex as possible to deter the average consumer from giving repairs a shot. 

I'm too contrarian for that. I've always been told the best to learn anything is by doing, so I have no qualms in digging my hands in and getting it mostly wrong. 

And luckily: I actually got it working again! The problem was that the disk reader had been covered by a couple decades worth of dust, so any game would forcibly stop itself after a minute or two. That meant that, a few loose screws, a bit of isopropyl alcohol and some very grubby fingers later - I had Luigi's Mansion booted up and ready to go. 

Now, Nintendo's pretty strict on their users' compliance. But they're also pretty confident their itty-bitty stickers will stop anyone from getting any work done.

What I've observed is that in a lot of sectors - particularly in technology - is that they become 'experts only' clubs, with carefully crafted norms and vocabulary to exclude anyone new from intruding. But the actual inner workings are more simple than they'd like to admit - so they try to keep it mysterious to the average pleb.

Everyone's guilty of that. When I'm really into a show, I'll purposefully mention more advanced plotlines, or characters only revealed in later seasons, to demonstrate that I'm a true fan, and thus more worthy than those who quit after the first season. But when that's done in a professional setting, it can be quite a worry. 

Right to Repair is all about getting companies to hold themselves accountable for the quality of the products they supply, as well as getting the average consumer to understand how their rights are being violated in the interest of large companies' bottom lines, and empowering them to fight back. It's inherently about equity - and yet I find its exclusivity keeps leaving behind its actual target audience. 

So to my eight or so readers: repair skills are worth investing in. Find an old, working device, take it apart, watch a few tutorials, and put it back together. See if it still works. 90% of repairs aren't as hard as they'd like you to believe. And worst comes to worst; you've got a new repair project on your hands. Circle of life ;)