Greetings fellow fixers, my name is Alex Diaz-Kokaisl (pronounced Dee-az Coke Hazel), and I'm a Senior Technical Writer at iFixit. I do a lot of random things for iFixit, but I primarily create repair guides in collaboration with our partners or for the sake of fixing!

Me and the techwriting gang

I graduated from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in 2021 with a BA in English. Notably, my senior project was working as a lead editor on my university’s literary journal, Byzantium. The journal has been ongoing since 1991, and my unique contribution was developing a network of past editors to help support the project financially and didactically. We were the first team to have the entire editing/publishing process be impacted by COVID-19, so there was a need for some innovation.

I've always been the tech savvy person in my family, mostly due to my love for PC gaming. Becoming an adult, however, has left me with little time to play video games (I did carve out some time to play Baldur's Gate 3 though). I've also done a lot of reading and writing in my time, which has helped me tremendously to not look like a dummy.

Great game, highly recommend

During college, I worked for Cal Poly’s Writing and Learning Center as a Writing Tutor, much to the chagrin of the students who thought I was a pushover. I also was a Copy Editor Intern for the Youth in Politics journal, which was a position that allowed me to use my writing skills outside of academia.

Nowadays, my interest in technology has shifted towards using it as little as possible to achieve the maximum benefit with minimum brainrot. We have so much useful, redundant technology that we don't know what to do with it—it's literally overwhelming our minds and landfills.

I write a lot of guides, and all of them are my children. Do I have a favorite child?

Yes.

The Google Pixel 6a screen guide is my favorite since the procedure (at least by modern-day repairability standards) is straightforward and feasible for the average person to perform. I like to this that this guide has kept many Pixel 6a's out of landfills.

Removing the screen from a Google Pixel 6a

I like reading! Although I mainly listen to audio books nowadays, I always prefer printed words.

Favorite fiction writer: Robert A. Heinlein

Favorite non-fiction writer: Thomas Sowell

I've also been an avid Magic: The Gathering player for...20 years? My god.

The Right to Repair MTG card