I hate seeing stuff going into landfill when it could easily be repaired and put back into useful service. This is true whether it’s computers, stereo gear, appliances, cars, or pretty much anything. And it’s educational and fun to fix things of all kinds. Too many people do the equivalent of buying a new car when their brakes squeak.

Discarding and replacing phones, computers, appliances, cars or anything else when they could be repaired seems wasteful and wrong. It also signals manufacturers that they don’t need to build anything to last. It tells them that planned obsolescence and poor quality is OK because people aren’t going to keep things very long anyway.

Another dimension of this is sustainability and the environment. How much energy, resources and labor are we spending to create new stuff to replace old stuff that still had years of useful life yet was discarded prematurely? All that energy, resource and labor could be put to better use. Some people get a new car every 3-5 years, a new phone every 2 years, a new computer every 2-3 years, etc. This stuff lasts more than twice as long as that.

Yet another aspect of this is economics. How much money are people spending replacing stuff that doesn’t need replacing? What a waste. That money could be put to better use, whether spent or invested.