
How communism turned Cuba into an island of hackers and DIY engineers - jonbaer
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/isolation-generation-master-inventors-cuba/
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zubatow
It's just people hustling to get modicum of things first world takes for
granted. We had this in Eastern Europe like 30 years ago and I can assure you
- most wouldn't like to go back (even if then rather in spite of rather than
because).

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ajuc
In communist Poland there was long-running (1959 to 1983) DIY TV program and
it was one of the most popular things in TV. The person that did it (Adam
Słodowy) was a celebrity.

Example show (in Polish but it doesn't matter):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gq8xiHZ_3nE

It was hard to buy anything except vinegar, so people did everything the Mc
Gyver way.

It was huge waste of time, of course - DIY is fine as a hobby, but it's not
efficient way to divide labour.

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teddyh
For complete from-scratch production, yes, it’s not cost-effective. But for
_repairs_? Many times, you can’t get the parts for love or money, and it may
well be worth the time.

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dognotdog
The way things are, it's worth the time if your time is worthless. I find it
hard to get out of that rabbit hole while my weekly budget could feed a family
for a year on the other side of the globe. So all the DIY projects I
undertake, I cannot justify them with economic efficiency.

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teddyh
Since you can’t get that family on the other side of the globe to do your
repairs for you, it doesn’t compare.

Even if I have a well-paid job, I don’t want to buy a new WizzGig 5000 because
a dinky part broke in my old Wizzy 650, but if there are no spare parts to be
found, it may well be worth it, _to me_ , to spend the time to make a
replacement part. Someone else on the other side of the globe isn’t going to
make one for me, so I have to choose between buying a new WizzGig 5000, making
a replacement part myself, or doing without it.

~~~
dognotdog
Indeed, the point is that working and buying a new device would net me more
money than spending the time I could've worked on fixing the device. I agree
with you, though, I'd also rather fix a broken part that cost a dime, instead
of throwing the whole thing away. It's just not worth it, if I only look at
the money angle.

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teddyh
You still seem to assume that it wouldn’t actually be worth your time. My
contention is that it _might well be_ , unless your pay is astronomical.
Imagine that the old model is discontinued and they only sell a different,
newer, larger, _much more expensive_ thing.

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tn13
DIY was common in India too during the socialist license quota raj.

