Maintenance: Of Everything: Part One
Everything decays, and almost nobody writes about the unglamorous work of keeping the world running.
Stewart Brand turns from building things to maintaining them: the repair of bridges, machines, buildings and institutions, and why the people who do that work stay invisible. His argument is that depreciation is underrated, in economics and in everything else, and that civilisations are held together by upkeep at least as much as by invention.
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Tyler Cowen
Stewart Brand, Maintenance: Of Everything: Part One. Capital depreciation, while it receives attention in economics, arguably is still underrated in import? Institutions can deteriorate or depreciate as well. The great Stewart Brand tackles this topic with the expected panache.
Source · January 2026
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