Repair (PDF)

This book propagates a new way of thinking about managing our resources by integrating the perspectives of complex systems theory and social psychology. By resources, the authors mean objects, such as cell phones and cars, and human resources, such as family members, friends, and the small and large communities they belong to. As we all face the "replace or repair" dichotomy, readers will understand how to repair themselves, their relationships, and communities, accept the "new normal," and contribute to repairing the world. The book is offered to Zoomers, growing up in a world where it seems everything is falling apart; people in their 30s and 40s, who are thinking about how to live a fulfilling life; people from the Boomers generation, who are thinking back on life and how to repair relationships. The Reader will enjoy the intellectual adventure of connecting the natural and social worlds and understanding the transition's pathways from a "throwaway society" to a "repair society.

Péter Érdi studies complex systems and focuses on the big picture in human life. His previous book, RANKING: The Unwritten Rules of the Social Game We All Play, illuminated our powerful interest in pecking orders, which we share with many other animals, shown no more dramatically than Americans' obsession with "Who's Number 1?" in college football every season. In Repair, Erdi's nose for the powerful influences of our hidden animal nature leads him to produce a fascinating analysis of one of the most common and important types of decisions we make: whether to stick with what we have and make it work (somehow), upgrade it, or replace it entirely. Why do we choose one option over the others? With his coauthor Zsuzsa Szvetelszky, Erdi deftly shows how widely this basic dilemma applies and permeates our lives, from deciding whether it is finally time for a new car or refrigerator, to reconnecting with an old friend, or even leaving one's job and start that 'second career' at last. Best of all, by showing us why we tend to make one of these choices instead of the other, the authors give us the ability to make better ones in the future.

John A. Bargh

Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science and of Management

Yale University

With a deep and wide-ranging analysis of alarming economic, sociological, and cultural trends, Érdi and Szvetelszky offer both a sweeping diagnosis of what's broken in our world and some welcome suggestions for repair.

Patrick Grim

Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus, Stony Brook

Philosopher in Residence, Center for the Study of Complex Systems, University of Michigan