I choose to fit myself into most of Apple’s intended-use constraints because their products tend to work better that way, which makes my life easier. But that requires trade-offs that many people can’t or won’t make. Previous-me tried to persuade everyone to switch to my setup, but I now know that it’s not worth the effort. I’ll never know someone else’s requirements, environment, or priorities as well as they do.
Marco Arment on technical evangelism and product choices.
I have reached the exact same conclusion. I can tell you what works well for me in my particular setup, but I can’t tell you what will work for you, nor can I solve your particular technical problems.
Yup. It’s a holistic thing; it’s not just the platform but the tools and ecosystem it works with. I find, for example, while in general the iPhone is quite nice, the lack of Google Voice integration (particularly with Siri) is driving me completely batty. But that’s just my particular preference based on the odd need I have to switch between 20 random phones without inconveniencing all my friends and family. On the other hand, someone who wants to do spreadsheeting on the go will have a hard time beating Numbers on iOS — but I avoid office-suite-type files like the plague, so that doesn’t really weigh into my math on platform choice.
People are usually surprised I don’t have a quick answer when they ask me “so what phone should I get?” or “what computer should I get?” and I think this is why — I know what I want for me, but I’ve grown to understand most everyone is their own unique case.
Perhaps that means we have grown old and wise. Or perhaps it means we now better understand that the world is more complicated than we ever expect it to be. Or perhaps it means we no longer care about platform holy wars. Or maybe we’re just lazy. I like to think its the first choice. 🙂
Wise, yes, but old? I’ll always be older than you, Danny. 🙂
For me, the light went on when I realized that while I do enjoy puttering around and tinkering with stuff to a limited degree, I was becoming more interested in computers as tools rather than computers as an end unto themselves.
Either that or it’s option #4 above.