Talking Tech and Other Stuff with JerryRigEverything!

Hey viewers, both new and old! Welcome to GTech and today I’ve got a little bit different of a video for you guys. I was assigned to write a persuasive speech for one of my college classes. I wanted to persuade my audience to perform self-tech repairs so if something like their cellphone were to break, they could go and repair it themselves as opposed to spending much, much more money at a dedicated repair center. And I had a pretty crazy idea. What if I could email the man himself who’s spent years and years tearing down smartphones and laptops and tablets all on YouTube… JerryRigEverything Just kinda out of the blue, I shot him an email saying “Hey, I’m a college student.

00:33 - Do you think I could interview you for some questions?” And when I actually got a response back, I was pretty floored. He agreed to it! To me that’s like talking to a celebrity! So a few emails later and I ended up sending him some questions and he made a video response answering the questions. I’m just gonna let that video play out so you guys can see his responses. So, take it away Zack! So my name is Zack Nelson, I run the YouTube channel JerryRigEverything. I am 32 years old. And I’ve been doing this YouTube thing for about 8 years.

01:02 - I started off my YouTube channel doing Jeeps and motorcycles. And I realized that if I wanted to reach a larger audience, I had to start doing projects on things that more people cared about; that more people owned. So that’s why I switched more into the technology space; cellphones, cars, like electric vehicles. Things like that because more people are interested in them. So the reason I started my whole YouTube channel adventure; y’know, my career, was because my Jeep broke down.

01:30 - The shop wanted $1,000 to fix it and so I looked on YouTube and I found a guy who could fix my exact same problem for $80 instead of $1,000. So I messaged him. I was like “Why are you making these awesome videos? Why are you taking time out of your day to help people out?” And he said his reason was to “decrease “world-suck”. To make the world a better place.” And I thought that was super noble of him and super cool, and I kind of wanted to do the same thing. The overall reason that I got started was to help people out fixing their own things. Ever since I was a little kid I’ve been asked to fix things for friends and family.

02:03 - It’s a fairly common occurrence and usually I’m successful, sometimes not so much. Luckily, my family and friends have been pretty respectful. With any relationship you don’t want to be the “moocher”. You don’t want to be the person who’s always asking. And so I’ve been- Y’know obviously every now and then there’s always that one person who doesn’t quite understand that you have to give something to get something. Usually there’s a pretty fair exchange going on. Y’know, like I fix your phone, you make me cookies. It’s a win-win for both of us. And so that’s how me and my close friends and family have operated for the last- y’know, since I was a little kid. But I haven’t been doing repairs for the general public unless I know you personally for like the last 6 [years] or so. It just stopped being cost effective for me.

02:49 - My time was more worth working on the next video than it was trying to fix someone’s device for profit. Plus as I’m working on my YouTube channel, it’s very easy to show hundreds of thousands of people how to fix a phone than it is to fix one phone for one person and not film it. The YouTube channel has become more of a priority for me for the last 8 years. So with the Right to Repair law I see things from both sides. I see why manufacturers would wanna keep people out of their electronics.

03:18 - For one, they make money by the repairs and they also don’t want people damaging them. I get this all the time with my YouTube channel is that someone goes to fix a phone, fails, and then makes the phone look like they never got in it in the first place and then try to warranty it. Then the brand loses out on a ton of money because of that fraud they’re committing; the person who tried to fix their phone but failed. So there has to be some kind of middle-ground where it is possible for people to fix their phones, but give them the proper tools and the parts and everything like that. But also, if you do try to fix your own stuff and you break it I don’t think that manufacturers should be responsible for that.

03:57 - It’s hard to side with one particular [group]; the manufacturers or the Right to Repair people. There needs to be a middle-ground between both of them. But if I had to pick a side I would be like “it should be okay for most people to fix the stuff they legally purchased in the first place.” Now as far as encouraging people to fix their own stuff, I always say if you can, great! I feel like most people know their skill level; they know whether they’re gonna be able to attempt something like this. Now, with a cellphone, if you’ve never worked a screwdriver in your life there’s a very good chance you’re just gonna mess more things up if you try to open it up.

04:32 - But I feel like most people are logical enough to think about that beforehand and know their skill level before they attempt anything drastic. The average person’s not gonna go attempt an engine swap when their skill level is barely able to change a tire. Lately I’ve been thinking- For the last year or so my thing has been recycling and making sure that at the end of a device’s lifespan it’s able to be recycled safely. Manufacturers aren’t planning for that in the future. Everything has a finite lifespan; phones last 2, 3, 4 years and then they need to be recycled.

05:06 - If the phone is constructed in a way that’s detrimental- Like the battery’s gonna explode if you try to take it apart then it’s not gonna be recycled and it’s just a lose-lose for everybody. That’s my biggest gripe is like- Yeah, make it repairable, but also make it recyclable in the future. I think manufacturers right now have kind of found that good line of repairability. The most repairable phone in the world would be- All you need is a screwdriver to get inside of it. But at that point then you don’t have any waterproofing and that waterproofing helps keep phones alive longer than making it repairable by just a screwdriver.

05:42 - So I would say the biggest thing lately for me has been- Manufacturers, it’s super easy to just put pull tabs underneath the battery that would make the phone more recyclable and make the phone more repairable and it costs like a penny for the manufacturers. Is dbrand really full of robots? Heh, I can’t answer that question! For me, I like having a routine in the morning. Since I’m in front of the computer like where I’m at right now… This is my office; I have two big monitors behind me- I’m in front of a computer all day so to keep myself sane is to just go to the gym in the mornings and just be around other people even though I never talk to anybody. Usually I just spend an hour and a half/two hours there while I’m answering emails, just walking on a treadmill.

06:26 - That’s my routine to get me started and get me out of bed in the mornings. After you develop a habit it’s really easy to keep it. So, the afro’s was something I had back in high school. I loved it but y’know, genetics takes over at some point and I’m fine with how things are now. Obviously if there was some kind of “miracle cure” in the future I’m down for that but I’m also- I’ve had friends who have spent thousands of dollars trying to keep their hair and it’s like… Life goes on. Alright George, I think that’s it. Okay, thanks man.

06:57 - Thanks for reaching out! No, thank YOU Zack for taking the time out of your day to answer some questions for me. Seeing your email honestly made my day; it completely floored me and I’m so, so grateful. I don’t know if I’ve said it enough, especially in the emails. I’m so very grateful that you were able to take the time out of your day to do this thing for me. Because not only did you give me the permission to make a pretty cool video out of it, but now I’m getting help with a college assignment.

07:21 - So it’s a win-win situation for me! But otherwise, I think that’s gonna do it for now. So if you liked this video, you know what to do and if you wanna see more stuff like this, make sure to get subbed below cuz I love making this stuff for you guys. And as always, have a good one! .