Over the last several days, I’ve been listening to the archives of the “Mac Power Users” podcast while in transit. I like that it provides a way for me to be acquiring new information while I’m doing stuff that would normally preclude, e.g. reading a book or writing, plus I get to find out about all sorts of cool technologies and ways of applying them—but therein lies my problem: The stuff they talk about is almost too interesting.
See, every time I hear about some sort of neat program on the show, I feel the need to check it out—for example, I’m currently trying out DEVONthink (hoping that I’ll find it more useful than Evernote—and it looks like I am already, actually), evaluating Mailplane (although it was only mentioned in passing), thinking about using Hazel (only tangentially mentioned by them, but that tangential mention led me to view another of my bank account’s nemesises, Don McAllister’s ScreenCastsOnline), and probably others that I’m forgetting.
Now, all of these programs are pretty great, and, while I do kind of worry about that amount of money I’m burning through, money is there to be spent, right? The part I’m worried about is whether I’m wasting too much time on playing with things to make me “productive” versus actually being productive—the kind of thing that one of my favourite Internet people Merlin Mann complains about.
Somewhere, a sad, obese man in pristine ASICS scarfs cookie dough over an unopened Runner’s World, complaining that he needs more “tips.”
I think that I’m avoiding the trap of endlessly navel-gazing and trying to find the “perfect program”, and actually doing stuff, or at least trying to. School helps with this, since I really need to get stuff done by a certain point. But jeez, I really love looking for programs I don’t need, to do things that I can already do perfectly well…a sort of magpie syndrome, I’m always looking for something new and shiny. A form of yak-shaving, I suppose.
On the other hand, I am doing a fair volume of stuff right now, so I suppose it’s justified if I experiment with different tools—if I’m doing it for the sake of improving what I’m already doing, and not just using something just for the sake of having something new, then it’s okay, right?
