![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
On Standing In Line and Being First
Sep. 22nd, 2014 09:40 pmI recently dropped everything to drive to Chicago through a dark night filled with more traffic than I had hoped for so my sister could wake me earlier than I used to get up to get to the 8:00 a.m. job to go stand in a cold wind on a bridge behind the Chicago Civic Opera. Yes, in line. I wish my sister had woken me a lot earlier, both because I'd have been waiting on a relatively warm street (rivers let the wind pick up coolth and speed), and because the sale would have been less picked over had we arrived earlier.
But cool opera costumes are cool, and if they don't fit right, I can fix that.
In contrast, I had no temptation whatsoever to stand in line for the new iphone. Sure, it can be fun to have a cool new thing before your friends acquire it--but new computers are all the same. Buggy. And a new phone or new computer isn't just something to dance around a con in, it's a day-to-day (and night-to-night) tool. It's there to let me check up on my elderly mother, who moved to the-middle-of-nowhere Oregon, and to let me get where I'm going on time and safely, and to remind me of doctors' appointments, and to let me write the stories I dream of sharing with all of you. And if something goes wrong, all I can do is call tech support and hope they can fix it fast.
Some things are worth waiting in line for. Some aren't.
I love living in the future. I love having computers and other geeky gadgets. But when it comes to tools I rely on, I'll let the rest of you find the bugs for me.
Oh, and thanks! Seriously. You make my life a little better eery time you help my tech work reliably before I get it.
But cool opera costumes are cool, and if they don't fit right, I can fix that.
In contrast, I had no temptation whatsoever to stand in line for the new iphone. Sure, it can be fun to have a cool new thing before your friends acquire it--but new computers are all the same. Buggy. And a new phone or new computer isn't just something to dance around a con in, it's a day-to-day (and night-to-night) tool. It's there to let me check up on my elderly mother, who moved to the-middle-of-nowhere Oregon, and to let me get where I'm going on time and safely, and to remind me of doctors' appointments, and to let me write the stories I dream of sharing with all of you. And if something goes wrong, all I can do is call tech support and hope they can fix it fast.
Some things are worth waiting in line for. Some aren't.
I love living in the future. I love having computers and other geeky gadgets. But when it comes to tools I rely on, I'll let the rest of you find the bugs for me.
Oh, and thanks! Seriously. You make my life a little better eery time you help my tech work reliably before I get it.
