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Comment by nuancebydefault | Hacker News Reader

Whoever shared this article, thanks! So much truth. 'New' feels good at the moment of buying, but more often than not, "struggling & repairing" feels so much better afterwards. Oh the toilet doesn't flush well anymore or it keeps taking water... no problem, I know how to fix it since I did it before. Oh the kid' s sword is broken, let's fix it together! My fiancee seems unsatisfied with how I acted at the table yesterday... honey tell me what's wrong, we can talk it through.

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Also, once you've gone in and repaired something yourself, it feels more yours than it did before.

Similar to the IKEA effect

> the kid' s sword is broken

I have so many questions

Don't worry, her sister's fine.

Long story short, the sword was forged during the First Age by the famed Dwarven-smith Telchar of Nogrod -- later wielded by Elendil and shattered in the Battle of Dagorlad. Once this kid's dad gets around to reforging it, it will be known as Andúril.

The Return of the Kid

I guess you don't have kids?

At first you buy those 2 dollar light plastic swords, which last a few hours.

Then you buy a tougher, floppy, one that last a week. Then you make a wooden one for them, they knock something down with it. Time to repair the tougher one.

A few years back I bought a few lengths of pipe insulation from the local Screwfix. The metre-long foam tubes, slit down the length of one side so you can push them over 15mm copper pipes.

The girl working there asked, out of interest, what I was buying them for. I started to say, pipes to the radiator are running directly behind the fridge... she interrupted to say "oh, actually for insulating pipes? We had a couple in here last week buying them for their kids to use for sword-fighting".

Sounds like a brilliant idea to me! Cheap enough to easily replace when they break. And the adults can easily nick them off their kids and have just as much fun using them to beat the shit out of each other, and they don't even hurt.

Reminds me of "swimming pool noodles", seemingly an indispensable ingredient in any top ## DIY life hacks.

When I was young, we had a "family carpenter" (he was way more important to my dad than the family doctor). He was a scrappy kind of a guy, somewhat disorganized, not great on craftsmanship but was willing to realize whatever my dad's visions of next project would be so I would see him every now and then. While he was on such an assignment, I requested a wooden sword and he made one out of the leftover wood - ugly but solid. He also made a bed-top desk for me with a compartment that had a liftable top to keep my stuff - again, ugly but solid. He would be an old man now, if he is still around.

I think those ugly and solid people who made ugly and solid things are increasingly going away and we as society are worse for losing them.

The Chinese version of a kid's sword: [1]

Context: this is a show about a bodyguard service. After several episodes of training from hell, the new bodyguards are now going out on jobs.

[1] https://youtu.be/zOf5CHSUUfg?t=1120

This is when the doctor leaves the ER examining room for a minute and you glance at the notes. "No abuse suspected at this time" is all you have time to make out before his swift return with the prescription for the antibiotics and instructions to keep the kid calm and quiet for the next 24 hours until the anaesthesia is completely out of their system.

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