Beyond the physical, tinkering has serious moral, economic, and political lessons. During World War II, DIY was encouraged as a patriotic duty. Now that the economy relies on people buying new things, repairing objects is equated to poverty, and looked down upon. It is sobering to think that morality can follow economics.

Wilson shows how tinkering exposes the artifices of the modern economy, such as the depersonalisation of mass-produced objects, which makes it easy to discard them and thus consume more. The consumptive logic of capitalism also extends to people: the division of labour makes us skilled in one area but not others: and so we must work for money, and paradoxically swap our lives for the means of survival.

Tinkerers provide a counter-narrative of redemption, material and otherwise: through repurposing objects, individuals can break from the formal economy and reassert their intrinsic value. What is tinkering? Wilson asks. It is ‘a foil to conditions of power. As such, it’s an embodiment of hope.’