Let Your Gear Grow With You
“Great artists work. Mediocre artists talk a lot about tools. Software does not make you a better writer. If classics were created with quill and ink, you’ll probably be fine with a Word Document. Or a blank piece of paper. Don’t let technology distract you.”
–Ryan Holiday, in this blog post
I’ve always had an unease when using tools that are too powerful. In college, I had a 15” 2012 MacBook Pro. All I used was Google Docs. For some reason, that made me feel weird. Why was I lugging around this dense machine to run a simple internet application?
I never turned that computer off, so right before I graduated college, it died. I took a check my grandma gave me for graduation, flipped it over, and endorsed it to the Best Buy floor salesman. (Ok, not really, but I spent the money pretty quickly on a new MacBook.) It was the 2016 base model 12” MacBook, weighing in at only 2.03 pounds. Maybe only a few dozen times in the past five years have I run a program that this computer can’t quite handle at high speeds. Every other time, when I fire up Gmail, it works just fine.
I’m grateful for this computer. It didn’t tempt me to get deeper into video editing. It couldn’t handle anything major. It helped me stay focused on producing and writing, ant that’s it.
There’s a confusing paradigm when it comes to gear. Is it better to get good gear and grow into it? Or is it better to upgrade only when you’ve maxed out your current setup?
For me, letting my gear grow along with me is best. Sure, there’s a short period of time between when I realize I need an upgrade, and when I actually get that upgrade, but with this strategy, my decisions were no-brainers, and I’ve only rarely spent money that I didn’t need to spend.
These are just musings, of course. I know plenty of people who make sure they upgrade before they need it, just to be sure they don’t lose any time. It all depends what your ultimate goals are. But when I reconsider Ryan Holiday’s quote above, I’m inspired to focus on the task at hand, with the most elegant, simple tools as I can possibly get by with.
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5 Steps To Achieve Your Creative Goals.
