Zen and the Art of [INSERT-THINGS-YOU-VALUE-HERE] Maintenance

One of my most favorite quotes comes from Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, "If we can’t wash the dishes, the chances are we won’t be able to drink our tea either." 🍵

If you know me, you know i love being a home chef. Recently, i was cleaning my stove top and seasoning my cast iron cookware when a neighbor stopped by and said, "I wouldn't buy a stove or cookware like that, too hard to maintain."

The comment caught me off guard a bit because i actually look forward to cleaning the stove, seasoning the cookware, sharpening my knives, etc.

To me, maintenance is meditation 🧘‍♂️

i feel somewhat obligated to draw some kind of parallel to business. In the MarTech world, we love to buy and hoard new tools for our kitchens, but most often we find ourselves unable to maintain the tools that we buy.

This is a massive problem when it comes to analytics. Lots of fancy tools but no time to maintain them. The lack of upkeep is leading to a lot of predictable problems, tech debt is piling up and analytics teams are burning out.

It's like trying to cook a gourmet meal with a dull knife and a wobbly cutting board.

When we first started thinking about the concept of SustainableAnalytics at 33 Sticks, one of the pillars we decided on was the importance of maintenance:

If you can't afford to maintain it, don't buy it!

And it is in maintaining of the things that we buy in which the most value is generated. If we aren’t prioritizing routine maintenance, we are not thinking sustainably and we are not honoring our craft.

So, how do you choose to view maintenance? Is it a chore? Something we just ignore? An opportunity? Something that excites and energizes?