What If We Repaired Instead of Replaced?

I recently share a thought on X/Twitter which is as below

This made me think about how we’ve slowly forgotten the art of repairing and reusing things.

Our parents grew up with a different mindset.

When something broke, you didn’t immediately replace it. You tried to fix it yourself, found someone who could fix it, or came up with some jugaad.

That ability to repair, improvise, and make something work again was an art in itself.

Today, when something breaks - a pair of earbuds, a phone, a watch, or even a household appliance - the solution is:

Replace it.

Even the company’s solution is replacement rather than repair.

We have slowly built a culture around replacing things instead of repairing them.

And that made me think about Kintsugi - the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold.

What makes Kintsugi beautiful is that it doesn't try to hide the damage.

It embraces the crack.

The broken pieces are brought back together, and the repair itself becomes part of the object's story - sometimes making it even more beautiful than it was before.

Not every crack means something needs to be thrown away.

Sometimes, it means something needs attention.

And perhaps the most valuable part isn't returning something to the way it was before. Perhaps it is repairing it so thoughtfully that the repair itself becomes part of its story.

That’s what I find fascinating about Kintsugi.

It doesn't pretend the break never happened.

It turns the break into part of the beauty.