By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 08/04/2026Work with a particular machine long enough and you will develop a Fingerspitzengefühl (fingertip feeling) for the optimal rate to introduce a new load of feedstock to it after it runs dry. 20/ 1152
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 08/04/2026Even more importantly: if you work with the machine long enough, you'll have the mobile phone number of the retired person who knows how to un-jam it if you try to reload it too fast on your usual technician's day off. This knowledge can mean the difference between profitability and bankruptcy. 21/ 2183
By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C) @doctorow.pluralistic.net · 08/04/2026So why isn't process knowledge given the centrality in our conceptions of what makes a corporation valuable? After reading Wang, Farrell and Davies, I formulated a theory: we ignore process knowledge for the same reason we exalt "IP." 22/ 1194
Ian McCullough @imccullough.bsky.social · 09/04/2026I was a lab manager of an equipment resource and knew a centrifuge technician in Nashville who had Beckman knowledge that was *geological*. He had a satellite phone that could get a signal anywhere and got worldwide calls as he was the only human still working who knew how fix certain machines. 0206
