Son of an electrical engineer I've been a fixer and tinkerer and experimenter all my life. When our portable VHS recorder stopped working my dad bought the schematic diagram and we dismantled it on the kitchen table and used an oscilloscope to identify the broken part. I've learned to fix what can be fixed yet to recognize when it can't and to spend the money to replace them with high quality new items.
Being educable is the most important thing, as it increases access to all sorts of possibilities.