Unfortunately, when it comes to trying your hand at repairing your personal property, certain manufacturers do care, and they’re getting in the way of consumers and hobbyists who just want to get their own electronics, appliances, and vehicles up and running again. This assault on our property rights and agency is at the core of the national push for legislation that secures the "Right to Repair" our personal property and explains why a half dozen states have already codified such a law.
There are innumerable legal and philosophical arguments that support the right to repair, which the Texas Public Policy Foundation addresses in a recent research paper. But I want to return to the coffee table illustration for a moment and pull on the thread of tinkering.
In simple terms, tinkering is the playful relative of engineering. This is where children learn firsthand how things work — what tools can do and the properties of different materials. Tinkering usually starts small with LEGO bricks, but in the case of almost every successful inventor and builder — people like Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, etc. — it quickly graduates into taking tech apart and putting it back together, deconstructing a car engine, and other engineering-like activities.
The problem is that many large corporations simply don’t want us to tinker.
Your iPhone? You void the warranty the second you crack it open instead of bringing it to the Genius Bar. A John Deere tractor you want to repair with your grandson? You can’t — John Deere requires that customers bring it into the shop on grounds of copyright law. Your dishwasher? Chances are it’s made by one of 86 percent of appliance companies that do not provide service manuals to customers as they do not recommend self-service (which is code for forcing you to work with one of their partnered technicians they get a kickback from).