The Maintenance Race was just the beginning

A new book from Stewart Brand, serialized on Works in Progress

Today we are releasing a new platform, Books in Progress. True to its name, draft chapters of ‘in progress’ books will be available for comments and direct collaboration with the author.

The first book will be Stewart Brand’s Maintenance: Of Everything. The book begins with The Maintenance Race, published on Works in Progress last year, and traces the philosophy and practice of maintenance from boats all the way up to the civilization and the planet.

You can opt-in to updates from Stewart’s book and other Books in Progress content here. You won’t get updates on new sections unless you turn on notifications for Books in Progress.

The first section of Ch. 2 Vehicles is available today: What Motorcycles Teach About Maintenance.

Start with the motorcycle. A motorcycle is a two-wheeled, unstable, heavy, complex machine that you wrap your delicate body tightly around and ride at high speed. The combination of exceptional intimacy and exceptional danger invites exceptional bonding. Nobody proclaims “Live to ride! Ride to live!” about cars. Philosophers don’t write extremely popular books about repairing cars, but two have about repairing motorcycles. Examining what interests them about fixing a motorcycle might turn up some instructive ways to think about repair in general.

Collaborate here.

Thanks to our designers, And—Now Studio, our developers, The Glasshouse Project, and everyone else who helped build the platform.