If you go at the right time, you can also often find someone who is willing to teach you these things, despite not being a professional mechanic.
These sorts of places aren't uncommon because maybe, just maybe, that's how things have been for eons and naturally have been as an evolutionary adaptation to millennia of change. In this case, cars are the focus. But one could see the expansion of the concept.
The IQ thing is barely a side story. An attention grabber. People will focus on that, and some will use it to add to the pile of things to care more about the point. But I hope some will accidentally see it as, "hey, smart people do smart things so mutual aid is a smart thing."
[0](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_aid_(organization_theor...)
Very happy to have searched "mutual aid" on hacker news today and come across this comment.
The reality is you keep it quiet and relatively secret, and you kick out people who smell like legal liability. This answer cannot be stated in public.
b) they sign waivers
c) the shop has insurance
I guess if the assets aren't lost they could be sold off or donated to a similar organization or something in that case however.
I'd argue the reverse--these kinds of co-ops are more likely to be found in smaller, cheaper, more rural towns. The key to these kinds of places is "cheap real estate with few restrictions".
As soon as the town starts getting too prosperous, they force these kinds of businesses out of the area.
There is at least one similar shop for bicycle repair, that also does a parts exchange. If you're upgrading your bike, you can leave your old parts for someone else to use.
I'd bet that almost any town of more than 100,000 people, maybe even less, has places like this.