Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish...

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In 1974, the last edition of 'The Last Whole Earth Catalog' was printed and sold. Its strap line and sign-off was "Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish...", quoted over a quarter of a century later by Steve Jobs in his 2005 Stanford commencement speech. Jobs - I confess to being an original Apple fanboy - did have an extraordinary impact on the world in many ways, but his motivations and personality ultimately were completely at odds with the motivation behind 'The Last Whole Earth Catalog'.

On the one hand, Jobs always wanted his tech to be 'white goods': closed, easy to use but let's face it, unserviceable, especially now, with the adoption of the new Apple Silicon: computers joining iPhones etc., in the realm of the 'unfixable' and now firmly non-upgradeable: what you buy is what you get, end of...

On the other hand, the source of Job's quote, which has been much referenced and often wrongly attributed to him, was anything but an argument for closed, proprietary systems, instead proposing exactly what many are pushing for currently: 'the right to repair'; in fact, a philosophical approach based on the pragmatic, empirical and practical. Basic skills, that given what was seen as the inevitable breakdown of corporate industrial society - something we are close to right now - would be the only salvation for the alienated, deskilled and disenfranchised populace.

We, now, more than ever, need a reprise of some form of 'The Last Whole Earth Catalog'; preferably in something like its original, large-format print form: because if things carry on the way they are, all those closed, unrepairable devices will be land-fill, with nothing to fill the void, and the support structures gone with them. Those of us who are still able to make and repair stuff will possibly have the last laugh after all...

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