We All Live in Our Own Ghetto
Listening to: Unbreakable - Evermore
When I was seventeen my Religious Education teacher turned to the class and told us all that we lived in a ghetto. I found this to be an odd thing to say to a bunch of middle class, Catholic (the relevant bit) New Zealanders. The reason I found it odd was, I’m ashamed to say, because I was just plain ignorant - for me ghettos were a defining feature of Inner City USA… not Palmerston North. My teacher explained himself and pointed out that most of the people we knew were Catholic and most of the things we did were Catholic. That intellectual homogeneity shaped the way we looked at the world. This was important for us to know because the next year we were going to leave school and our ghetto and we were going to have to deal with the wider world. He made it his job to prepare us.
Being told that I lived in a bubble was the most profound educational experience I’ve ever had. This insight it left a permanent mark on how I monitor the way I think about things and, importantly, how I cross check the way I think about things. I have ghetto detector and every now and again it goes off.
A few years ago I was really concerned that I was stuck in an intellectual rut. It was comfortable and at the time it wasn’t causing too many problems - but it worried me, the way I saw the world felt static. Given that I spend an inordinate amount of time looking at the world through a computer it seemed logical that I could gain a different view by using a different lens. So even though I was a Microsoft developer I invested in a Mac - not because I wanted to develop Mac software but because I wanted to look at the world in different way. It turns out that it worked. I look at software in a different way. I have new expectations about products. Most importantly I look at problems in a slightly different manner - and when your life is solving problems that helps.
This morning I was having a conversation with some friends, all of whom are big Windows fans, and I was taken aback. One of them had recently purchased a new Apple machine and wasn’t enjoying the move across to the new platform. This lead, inevitably, to a free for all about XP vs Mac OSX. The the content of the commentary really struck me, and after an hour of yoga it set off my ghetto alarm (not too sharp this morning). The balkanization that is a characteristic of the software industry traps people (very, very smart people) in these little intellectual ghettos. It amuses me, perversely, that this is contrary to the image of technology - that some how it is a space in which people are continuously looking to explore new frontiers. It seems that it’s not.
For the record - Windows on the Left, Mac OSX on the Right:
Yes, I am aware that is a picture of my very own PC ghetto.
July 31st, 2006 at 4:04 am
Your friend did buy the Mac afterall, presumably for the exact purpose you described - to see how the other half live. The fact that he’s ready to give up so quickly is either a sign of his inpatience, prejudice, or the overwhelming inferiority of the experience. As with most things, the reality is probably somewhere in the middle.
I definitely agree that it’s important to step out of your comfort zone and explore new terrain. However, I wouldn’t blame somebody for being unhappy with the experience. Give it a reasonable chance, yes. But there’s definitely no need to force yourself to be miserable.
Personally, I’m an OG Mac guy. It’s only recently that I’ve become an XP guy. I have very serious misgivings about Mac OSX. Nevertheless, I put in for a MacBook to mine that foreign territory for valuable lessons. Maybe if your friend hates it so much they could give it to me?!
July 31st, 2006 at 11:37 am
Philip
Oddly, the dissatisfaction with the MacBook is something that I can understand. Apple kit is hyped to all hell and when you sit down to use it for the first time there are things you need to get your head around. That is grounds for some serious post-purchase cognitive dissonance.
At the end of the day I think that the cost of exploring new stuff can be quite high (and moving from one OS to another is a high cost exercise). From that point of view people are keen to cut their losses as soon as possible. My personal feeling is not making that exploration investment costs more - long term… but you have to see it as an investment I guess and spend the time.
What struck me more was the furvour that was being expressed from both sides of the debate (and my reaction to it). It was the sort of thing that was getting in the way of exploring (I am guilty of exactly that with Ruby on Rails). I am not trying to defend one OS over the other, but rather I was looking at what the willingness to take sides does to the way you percieve software, problems and solutions. Yesterdays discussion was simply a catalyst for clarifying something that I have experienced for 20 odd years.
August 1st, 2006 at 1:34 pm
Great post Dave. I currently run both windows and OSX side by side. When I bought an iBook last year I initially was just sold by the push of a very good friend, and the excitement that my iPod had created for me a little earlier in the year. But there is no doubt that for me it really has been the kind of experience you described. It has opened some eyes for me about software (as a user) and also for me as a consultant to software companies (I recruit for them) that I think has been really helpful. At first I thought I would be dumping my windows machines eventually, but now I kind of like using them together (funny that), both OS’s seem pretty natural, and while there are little things in each I don’t like, I really enjoy the creativity and design I see when using my Mac, and I still enjoy some of the familiarity or using windows.
From a wider point of view, I now think that since technology is such a huge part of my life, and while it may be a high cost excercise (mostly mentally rather than financially) to switch tools and try new things. I think it is critical to continue to push those edges because the rut you talk about is much more dangerous (and funnily enough probably even higher in cost). I didn’t feel like I was in a huge rut before I bought my Mac, but there is no doubt that the creativity it has stimulated for me has made me feel like I MUST have been in one before I switched.