Stewart Brand

And from then on, he had to figure out how to self-steer just by setting the sails in certain ways on his catch.

So...

And then he had to worry about when he was sleeping below decks.

And if it jibed, which you can do with the sail whams over to the other side, he had to know that was happening or about to happen.

And so he took from his bunk the sideboard so that when the boat was about to jibe, it would change its angle, dump him on the floor,

And he would pick his bruised body up, go out on deck and reset the whole system.

And that was his idea.

That was the way he did maintenance was it was more important to maintain the rigging, which was becoming fragile, than maintaining his own personal bodily integrity.

And so he got kind of bruised up.

I think you do whatever you have to do.

For some people, they make it a ritual that they enjoy as a ritual.

It's like praying or something.

Others do it as they can do it mindlessly while they are thinking or listening to something else entirely.

There's a book called Round the Bend I'll be writing about soon.

that it's basically an error.

It tells in the 1920s of airlines taking shape in the Middle East.

And one of the aircraft mechanics is very interested in religion, and he becomes a kind of a sage that people come to and listen to.

And he's teaching maintenance as basically a form of spiritual practice.

And which is pretty interesting because Arab cultures are not so good on maintenance.

That's why they always lose wars in the Middle East.