Hello.
My name is Jason Maxham, and I’m the author of The Art Of Troubleshooting.
If you’re interested in the origin of this web site and my book, check out the Introduction (this was my first blog post) and the Big Idea.
As for me, I’ve had a diverse set of experiences that eventually led me to think and write about troubleshooting in a general way. These include:
- Start-ups: mostly data-mining and software. I’ve been a CTO and co-founded a few companies—some of which were successful and all of which can be described as “drinking from a fire hose.”
- Aviation: I have a private pilot certificate. Flying a small airplane, low and slow, over this beautiful earth is exhilarating.
- Programming: I used to hack the Perl (for money). Now, I hack the Ruby (for fun).
- Amateur Radio: I got my ham radio license in Junior High. Didn’t use it for the longest time, until I got involved with some people who like to chase balloons.
- Motorcycles: vroom vroom.
- Travel: getting from point A to B is a very fun kind of problem-solving. I like the perspective gained from experiencing other cultures. Also, the food. Oh, the delicious things I’ve eaten! I’ve been to 35 countries and counting…
The best way to interact with me is by leaving a comment on any of the individual articles. I welcome your feedback and look forward to responding!
Other ways of contacting me:
- Give me a shout out on the tweeter horn (@JasonMaxham).
My other projects:
- Orgastic Future: my personal blog.
- Piston & Chain: a community workshop and social club for motorcyclists.
THE ART OF TROUBLESHOOTING 
Thanks for all the hard but obviously rewarding work you put in to building the Art of Troubleshooting.
As a technical instructor (Instrumentation, Electrical, Process Control, and whatever project they decide to ask me to tackle), I found your take on troubleshooting very enlightening. It led me to revisit modifying a one-day technical troubleshooting course I put together years ago and to shamelessly borrow some of your teachings for it. I have not released the “new and improved” version yet as I want to make sure I am not infringing on anything in doing so. I of course give full credit your work as appropriate and to get the students to motivate themselves to read your entire work.
While much of your book accurately deals with well-documented troubleshooting mechanics, your treatment of the “human” (or psych side) of troubleshooting is rarely covered in a meaningful way. Your book clearly gives the psych side the weight it deserves.
When delivering technical courses, I have presented troubleshooting practices for years. The Art of Troubleshooting reshaped my thinking and led me to develop a newer approach. Rather than focusing on the technology at hand (IT, Instrumentation, Electrical, Control systems, etc.), it now teaches troubleshooting as a prerequisite to whatever technical training a student is embarking on. I redesigned it for delivery as a generic set of concepts and best practices that apply to all technologies (and even many life situations which need to be “fixed”, IMHO). I think the fit you led me to is a better approach than teaching sequenced troubleshooting methods all day.
I have added your website as required reading for those students I purport to have any influence on (tongue-in-cheek comment). I hope to pilot the first session (largely slide and activities-based) in the near future. Please let me know if there is anything I need to do on this side beyond ensuring you are given appropriate credit throughout.
Thanks for giving an old dog a few new tricks to try.
Chuck Carter
Lee College (supposed to be retired)
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You’re welcome and it’s great to hear that my writing has been useful to you. All the best as you launch your new course! My goal is to spread these ideas, so I’m glad that you’ve found a way to integrate them into your curriculum. Thanks for crediting me and encouraging your students to check out my work.
Since releasing the book, I’ve heard from several educators who’ve designed general troubleshooting classes inspired by The Art of Troubleshooting. Given that the principles underlying repair are applicable to so many different facets of our lives, my dream was that these concepts would eventually be taught widely. It’s gratifying to hear from instructors who are doing exactly that!
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Hi Jason. Thank you so much for this great book. I am amazed that someone put so much information together about something so interesting. It is now one of my reference books and I shared it with anyone I can. I am sure you have a very nice group of people that want to say thank and talk about this or other troubleshooting great ideas. If you every have a group for such people count me in that will be just the next great thing beyond this great book. William Ortega – IT Manager and Ace of all Trades/Shade Tree Mechanic. 🙂
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Very interesting and entertaining, thank you for the effort! I’m a reliability engineer, and am in process of developing some type of equipment functional assessment tool that will assist in forecasting capital needs related to physical asset management. In other words, what equipment will likely need to be replaced in the next few years, the priority / criticality of the equipment, and so on. You provide some good perspective to be considered when doing these types of calculations. Thank you very much!
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Jason! Thank you for taking the time to write such a helpful and fun to read book
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Thanks, Raul!
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