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Comment by dominicq | Hacker News Reader

For the most part, "repair and remain" is very good advice, but there's a small but significant percentage where it's the opposite of what you should do. Sometimes you live in a building that's ready for teardown and you should leave (metaphorically and literally).

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True, but I think the point of the article is that, in modern life, we tend to err strongly in the other direction.

The grass is greener on the other side, so to speak, but instead of going to the other side you can also learn lawn care and fix your own.

Great metaphor

Obviously the writer is biased towards people who are regular church goers with vices not shameful enough and with a sense of community that they confided to a lay minister. Obviously that selects for relationships which can still be 'saved' with a little repairing.

Not to be a downer but while the idea is great, no one knows how things will turn out, as the writer himself conceded.

I know people who bailed on marriages early and I think, yes, this article has some good advice, but it’s also very important to fail fast where failure is inevitable.

If this inevitable failure only becomes apparent after you’ve had kids but you’re sure they will grow up only having seen bitterness in their parent’s relationship, then bailing out is still valid advice.

Yeah, but this is good advice precisely because most people don't do it and it's not intuitive.

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