A Better State of Repair: The benefits of making the products that we use last longer, through repair, maintenance, and optimized usage

The vast array of products that we have available in our modern lives leads to waste and environmental degradation on a massive scale, from the manufacturing and usage of these products as well as from their ultimate disposal. The author presents ways of reducing this waste and minimizing our impact on our planet by making these products last longer, through repair and maintenance as well as through modified usage practices. Readers are encouraged to step into repair themselves through methodical problem solving processes and practical examples. The craft of repair is celebrated in this text through the independence and satisfaction that it brings to repairers as well as in benefits to the owners of the repaired items.

David Baar is a Physicist and Engineer, and an advocate for reduction of detrimental human impact on our world through repair and other means. For more than 50 years, he has been actively involved in repairs of a broad set of products - appliances, electronics, bicycles cars, and more. His research has appeared in several scientific journals, and he is an entrepreneur and an inventor with many granted patents.

Praise for A Better State of Repair

"David Baar's A Better State of Repair lends scientific credibility, inspiration and hope to those who feel the need to correct the imbalance and meaninglessness in modern society but don't know what they as individuals can do about it. By providing a wide variety of simple, affordable repair, maintenance and recycling guidance, A Better State of Repair could be a significant contribution to the necessary large scale reduction of pollution and environmental destruction as well as individual meaningful satisfaction. " --Rob Wood, author of At Home in Nature and The Zone

“A key trait of those who consistently design and build new innovative things is a compulsion to gain a visceral understanding of how things encountered in the everyday world work – or don’t. Taking things apart – to fix them or for curiosity’s sake – is a key path to gaining such understanding. A Better State of Repair goes beyond being a conventional “How to fix-it book” (although it does serve such purpose). It is a guide to giving new life to things from the past while they, in turn, provide priceless insights to the creation of things in the future. Like my own, this path, with the accompanying pragmatism gained, has been a foundation of the author’s professional success. The book is a gift, equally to things of the past and those of the future which benefited from the lessons they taught.”--Bill Buxton, Officer of the Order of Canada, and maker, breaker, and fixer-upper

Dave Baar is a physicist, an engineer, an inventor, an entrepreneur, a rock climber, a patent expert, a wild windsurfer, an electronic wizard, and a skilled photographer! The common theme of all his many skills and interests is detail, detail, detail, patience, patience, patience! ABSOR is a book for everybody who has something to fix or has a desire to learn how! An underlying but powerful motivator for the book was Dave’s long interest in reducing waste. Like a good cookbook, this book should be kept in a place of easy access. --Haig Farris LLD, Officer of the Order of Canada

A Better State of Repair offers a fresh and thoughtful perspective on why repair matters. Beyond the environmental benefits, it highlights the community, learning, and independence that come from prioritizing these skills. David Baar challenges us to rethink our relationship with the things that surround us, showing how the simple act of repair can be a powerful force for good.

--Julie Angus, CEO, Open Ocean Robotics; Author of Rowboat in a Hurricane