The Zen Art of Hardware Maintenance

Foolish words about consumer electronics

While I was finishing cabling my last build, I stopped to reflect on how it reignited a passion that I feared may have been lost.

I was able to do something I’ve not been able to do in a long time: I was able to fucking slow down. I could consider the best ways to approach problems. I was able to experiment, measure, and re-evaluate.

I’d forgotten what it was like to enjoy this kind of work. I found a long-forgotten peace in the small acts of routing cables, cinching zip ties, and tensioning screws.

I became lost in a vacuum of muted reflection as I thought about the heat, the airflow, and the connections of it all.

I rediscovered my mind of metal and wheels.

It dawned on me how each machine I’d built was a time capsule. How This Machine had been almost 20 years in the making.

Time is the only constant in the known universe. It is unyielding and relentless. It makes fools of us all. Our rotten little human hearts beat at time’s core-clock speed.

“So why the fuck am I in such a hurry?”

I thought back on a lifetime I’d spent ignoring Chronos and telling him to fuck off. A life time of making sure things were done once and were done right.

I’ve received plenty of (genuine) constructive criticism about my work not adhering to a manufactured deadline. During one of these reviews, I was told something that really re-framed how I approach problems:

“You should have been a watch maker.”

–

Oh shit, wait. 🤔

Maybe was that just a really passive aggressive burn.

Damn dude.

Got me.

–