On My Current Approach to Taking Action
caption: The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis by Rembrandt van Rijn
Recently a seemingly impulsive purchase left my partner dumbstruck. She thought I was brash and took a meaningless decision. I thought I'd write about it here to process my thinking and hopefully help you learn a thing or two about how you could approach a similar situation!
I've been a Macbook user for close to ten years now. For all this while I have been a big fan of using Macs. Not only that, MacOS has this software called Final Cut Pro which is my preferred tool for producing videos.
Video editing is no simple task. For a video that's about 30 minutes long, it can take me around six to eight hours to make it. The process is quite lengthy and so every minute counts. The last thing you want to be dealing with is your hardware not being able to keep up.
Video editing is also one of my favourite hobbies, it's one of those things that can really ground me and can keep me focused for hours on end. Therefore, enjoyment is key here!
My MacBook started to break down over the past year (having served me well for five long years). I was having all these issues which I needed to address:
- Crashing while video editing
- Incompatibility with my desk setup
- Low storage requiring my edits to be stored in an external drive
- The risk of Apple stopping support for Intel based chips within the next couple of years
I have been very reluctant to take the plunge and buy a new Macbook with an M-Series chip. It doesn't take a whole lot of web searching to find how Apple are quite anti-competitive and anti-consumer. I've been contemplating leaving Apple and instead giving something else a try.
For a brief moment, I did use Linux. You can actually read about my experience using Linux in one of my previous blog posts. From the outside it seemed like such a nice idea but a practice it didn't really work for me. Although I can still use the infamous phrase, "I use Arch btw" as I own a Steamdeck that runs on Arch Linux.
But in reality for my day-to-day software needs, especially my video editing needs were not being met by Linux. And since Microsoft have taken some really questionable decisions around windows, my interest in owning a Microsoft device is at an all-time low.
Picture this, you have all these thoughts floating in your head. And all of a sudden, you come across a second hand MacBook in really good condition? And it comes with a five year warranty?
Therefore, I took my partner on a pilgrimage to the shop to buy the MacBook on the spot (which is what I'm using to write this blog post btw). It was available at a reasonable price and I was going to exchange my old laptop as well, which was going to save me some money.
She took my decisive action as an impulse purchase. She hasn't heard any of my inner monologue on the situation. All of a sudden, I announce that I'm rushing to a shop nearby to pick up a Macbook like a carton of milk.
But in my head, these were things that I've been thinking about for a long time. With Christmas around the corner, I needed to produce a video (which has been a Christmas tradition now for three years running!) very soon. And this laptop should hopefully make the process easier and more enjoyable!
So yeah, hopefully you can see my point as well. I'd be keen to hear what your thoughts are as well. Feel free to email me your thoughts!
Until next time,
Tony