Maintenance
Of Everything, Part One
by Stewart Brand · first published 2024
25% recommend75% neutral
The first in a multi-volume work, Maintenance: Of Everything, Part One offers a comprehensive overview of the civilizational importance of maintenance. The book explores the insights that can be gleaned from the maintenance of sailboats, vehicles, and weapons, with absorbing detours into the evolution of precision in manufacturing, the enduring importance of manuals, sustainment in the military, and the never-ending battle against corrosion. Maintenance: Of Everything is a wide-ranging and provocative call to expand what we mean by “maintenance.” It invites us to understand not only the profou
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
For similar ideas (not specific to software), check out Stewart Brand's book Maintenance of Everything.
on “Preventive Software Maintenance” ↗https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zen_and_the_Art_of_Motorcycle_... https://www.bartneck.de/projects/research/pirsig/zen.pdf (starts at page 313) Rediscovered while reading Maintenance: Of Everything, Part One - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46696276 - January 2026 (35 comments) ISBN13 9781953953490 (pages 46-48)
on “Gumption Traps” ↗It's a fantastic museum and featured a bit in Stewart Brand's Maintenance of Everything (https://books.worksinprogress.co/book/maintenance-of-everyth...).
on “Niche Museums” ↗…that were built long before them. (For both the cultural reasons and plain physical reasons, like not having wide enough roads). Something I recently learned about roads from Stewart Brand's new book "Maintenance" is that the first groups pushing for paved roads were cyclists: The Good Roads Movement of the late 19th century began as a grass-roots crusade to improve roads for bicyclists. By the 20th century,…
on “The Future of Everything Is Lies, I Guess: Where Do We Go from Here?” ↗