Free Your Creative Spirit: Get a Mac
What if? What if you never bought a Mac? How different would your life be today?
What if. What if I had never bought a Mac? What if I wasn’t even interested in Macs? Obviously, I wouldn’t be here today with my regular writing for Apple Matters. Some of you would probably be glad of that. 
My life would be very different. But what came first? Did the Mac make me? Or did I go looking for the Mac? Probably a bit of both.
This year I’m studying graphic arts. But you can bet your leftie I wouldn’t be if not for my Mac. That’s not to say I wasn’t into graphics before the Mac. I was a published cartoonist years before my first Mac, but owning and working with PCs seemed to keep me trapped into a working life of supporting them.
Where the Mac changed my life, and still does, is that it drew me away from the IT support. It showed me computers could be tools, not tools. Colloquially, the latter use of tools refers to something stupid and annoying. Recent experiences have reinforced that.
The Mac is just a computer. OS X is just an operating system. But the similarities end there. However, it’s easy to forget that “just” doesn’t only mean “just.”
I am demanding and cynical, which is no surprise to regular readers. It wouldn’t be surprising if folks at Apple have a picture of me on their dartboard—if they even bother to read my drivel. It also wouldn’t surprise me if many a reader hasn’t muttered, “so why the heck do you keep using Macs?!”
Because, of course, the Mac is the best.
I know there is no real alternative (Linux? Pfft! It’s either for the ubergeek or the Windows refugee who still wants Windows), but I had grown complacent about how bad the claimed alternative—Windows—is. For the last few days I’ve been constrained to a Windows XP environment and it all came flooding back like a dirty sock full of bricks. Actually, the whole laundry basket.
I do think Apple oversimplifies things. A few more options could be added here and there in OS X and no one would complain. Because compared to Windows…well, you’d think Windows was designed by the
Pointy-Haired Boss
(of Dilbert fame). Windows is like the meeting you have to form a committee to decide whether to have a meeting.Windows is a kick in the gonads of user friendliness. You will go cross-eyed with pain when hit with the 1,582 options to configure, say, the firewall. Or the 978 settings for configuring a printer. Or if you’re really feeling masochistic, go visit the Computer Management utility (Control Panel, Administrative Tools).
It staggers me how normal folks can use Windows and its layer upon layer of settings and messages. If cars were like Windows, you’d have to check five different gauges, press eight buttons, and put the hose in nine different places just to fill up with fuel.
And there’s the overall visual assault—which Vista has improved somewhat, but still looks like spit and polish on an Edsel.
If all that’s not bad enough, you’ve also got the constant worry of what if something gets into your system and feeds all your passwords and banking details to someone who is not doing a thesis on the password habits of PC users. When I use Windows, no matter what safeguards are in place, I can never be confident there are enough.
Not to say OS X is perfect, but seven years without any widespread security breach is comforting. And to fools who claim it’s because of the Mac’s small marketshare: if the Mac marketshare is so insignificant that it can’t attract the attention of hackers, why on earth do the likes of Adobe and Microsoft bother making software for Macs? They’ve got a lot more to lose than the hackers have.
Looking at it as a computer nerd, it’s easy to see how as long as I revolved in a Windows world, it would feed off my ability to solve problems. But by stepping out of that, it began to free my mind, which had developed quite a creative streak because of the extraordinary problems it sometimes encountered. With my mind creative, free, and now revolving in a Mac world, a new seed of more artistic creativity began to blossom.
Now I’m no artist of any persuasion. An average writer; quite ordinary at drawing; terrible at any of the other fine arts. But there are still some basics I can learn and take onwards into a creative role that is free of me having to waste my creative energy on solving computer problems.
And I guess this is one of the reasons Macs are so popular in the creative fields: the creative energy can be used for creating the work, rather than looking for creative solutions to the plethora of problems that plague the paned platform.
Whenever you start to question the PC’s reliability, you get the Mac-like argument “I’ve never had any trouble with viruses, et al.” And I don’t disagree with that, except I know from experience that keeping your PC running sweet and free of the plethora of problems still requires a lot more maintenance than it does on a Mac. And, what’s more, if you take just the littlest breather, disaster can strike. But wait, there’s more!
What really drove me up the wall using Windows recently was the constant little yellow bubble messages, warning me and advising me. How can anyone get any creative flow going with them interrupting all the time?
And then, at my in-laws’ yesterday, I spent a couple of hours (partially successfully) trying to get printing to work on all machines on their peer-to-peer XP network.
Occasionally—occasionally—I do have times where I waste an afternoon trying to get something to work on my Mac. However, those times are quite rare. As I like to remind readers, my brother rang me once a month for help when he had a PC, but barely does so yearly since he’s had a Mac.
Last week I attended AG Ideas, a design conference for design students. We heard from designers from many fields: fashion, automotive, furniture, building, graphic, and so on. Listening to one of the speakers—one of the many speakers who used a Mac—a thought struck me. Most of the speakers mentioned tight deadlines, and I realized that, considering the extra labor required to use and maintain a PC, you could imagine the collective thought of the Mac users in the creative world would be:
“We don’t have time to use PCs.”
When I think about it now, I should have taken to my PC years ago—with a sock full of bricks. If you’re reading this and still a Windows user who’s been thinking of switching, maybe you should too. You’ll be glad you did.
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By the way, I find the “Mac-tard” word offensive in the extreme.
Yeah sure you do. Count the number of times Matthew was called a “moron” and an “idiot” in that other thread, then user your fake righteous indignation to try to explain why that’s perfectly okay but “Mac-tard” isn’t.
You can stop right there. You and I both know this is not the case. I disagreed with Chris in this very thread and our discussion has been perfectly civil.
Good point. On this occasion, you have been a complete gentleman.
Find examples of me insulting windows users the way you regularly insult us beeblebrox-dissenters, and let’s talk.
Again, not the point.
Not the point?! Not the point that I don’t do what you claim I do? Not the point that you grossly misrepresented the comments in the other article as being directed at a windows user? Not the point that those comments were angry at the flamebait, irrelevant title, perhaps. Not the point that I simply do not “tar-and-feather” critics of apple as you claim. Not the point that my issue is not with Apple’s critics, Beeblebrox, but with your attitude towards rationally presented opinions. Not the point that rationally presented opinions, however hard I try, made no impact on the nature of your response. Not the point that you absolutely fail to heed anyone else’s opinion and merely declaim your own from on high, that you don’t show the slightest iota of respect for anyone unless they are agreeing with you.
Not the point that you avoid engaging in discussion of anyone else’s ideas and see fit to declare them retarded instead.
Clearly none of that is the point, from your point of view. Sorry to bounce roundly off your iron-clad bubble once again.
You both seemed to agree with it, especially Ben
I said this:
I must say your article didn’t raise in me the ire we see here, but I do understand it, in that your mistake, as you now acknowledge it, was no grounds for an article with this title.
And pointed to this post which said it better than I did:
Messing with your computer will give you experience and you will learn a lot. I believe that the only mistake you did was the title of your column “And They Said the Mac Was Intuitive”.
I would choose “Learning The Hard Way”
—Tropi
Just to add, you are recommending I defend a flamebait article from flames.
Not the point that those comments were angry at the flamebait, irrelevant title, perhaps.
Well that’s certainly an outright fabrication. They were not calling him an idiot and a moron because he was flame-baiting. They called him that because he deleted his /usr folder without knowing that he wasn’t supposed to and then blamed Apple for making it too easy to do.
I’m not claiming he’s a Windows user, although one of the comments did suggest that he go back to Windows where he belongs. And I don’t disagree that he was wrong to delete the folder and wrong to blame Apple, which I stated quite clearly in my comments.
My point here is that the thread is decidedly uncivil, unquestionably full of personal attacks and insults, but rather than expressing the disdain for insults and incivility that you CLAIM to have, you defended it and said you “understand it.”
Clearly you have no problem with insults OR incivility, as long as they are not directed at you or Apple. Then it’s all just peachy.
As a psychologist it is quite confusing for me on what I should get into. I’ll stick to
@ATMA
I hate the creative-technical dichotomy. There is no such thing. Confronted with many problems the guy who put central heating in our house came up with several very creative solutions. Creative as in the definition, to come up with a non-standard solution for a problem. Having an urge to paint your bed room pink is not creativity. If creativity is ever used it is certainly in technical jobs. Creating a more simple system [in whatever discipline] is the definition of being creative. A taxi driver figuring out another route, a doctor looking for a way to beat that virus, ergonomics as a whole are creative. An IT guy sticking to his clumsy datebase i.g., is not creative. Why, because he lacks the knowledge to overcome the problems.
That is why the thermostat in my parents house was put upside down, because that’s how the wires finally came out of the hole in the wall. The guy promised to fix but never showed up. After a year of trying to read the display upside down, my father then took a course electricity and fixed it.
This IT guy obviously has no clue how much technical knowledge goes into “creativity”. Part of is due to the illusion created by experts that the more expert they get the less they seem to sweat over technical questions. Studies on experts show that i.g. expert radiologist look far less to the photo’s than novice doctors, who carefully go over the photo’s before making their diagnosis, while the experts appear sloppy take a glance and make their diagnosis. Of course the experts have far better results than the novice doctors, but to the on-looking patient the novice doctor seems more reliable.
Putting a glass bridge over the Grand Canyon is a creative act involving top knowledge.
People calling macUsers creative is a euphemistic way to say there all a bunch of loony hairdressers.
The creativity involved in using windows, is of another sort. It is the knowledge that in order to start you car, you must start it twice very fast, then get out kick the front, and then start in second gear, and leave it in second gear because now that it works you shouldn’t assume too much.
Not everyone in the “Creative business” however is creative as I’m sorry to say about Beeb. Read one comment, you read them all. It is like in Cyrano de Bergerac, when Cyrano confronts a man calling his big nose, big.
Not everyone in the “Creative business” however is creative as I’m sorry to say about Beeb.
I now await with baited breath the excoriating rebuke that will never come from Ben and vb_baysider about the personal insult.
*crickets*
On the topic at hand, I think the idea that Macs inherently lend themselves to creativity kind of baseless. I agree that there is no dichotomy between creativity and technicality, but it’s not like there is no technicality involved with using a Mac. It’s a computer. It’s maybe slightly more intuitive in some areas than Windows, but using it still requires some basic knowledge of computers. It’s not exactly like sitting down and picking up a pencil and paper or paints and a brush.
Macs got associated with creativity because they got branded with Photoshop and other art tool software. But being a brand associated with art tools has nothing to do with creativity any more than owning a set of oil paints makes you Leonardo da Vinci.
@Beeb
In art circles, what I said is considered a critique not an insult. Not all things unpleasant are insults.
And in my experience the “creative business” often exhibits less creativity than so called technical business. Every good teacher or lawyer is a better stand-up than the bulk in my country. (They discovered stand-up in Belgium. Now everyone who doesn’t use a chair or a cane on stage can make a living out of that)
A doctor must “behave” like a doctor is expected to, or he will not be believed, and therefore his advice will not be followed.
When I wrote for TV I played ‘the Creative’ who was always just in time on the deadline. It was simply my tactic to eliminate interference from the suits. If they have the script they feel an urge to do <i>something</i> with it. Like having a meeting to challenge your choice of the color of the hat of some chap in the background. I didn’t give the scripts to actors till shooting day otherwise they start to interpret the text. How should I say “come in” ? «COME in» or «Come IN» or «Sigh sigh - Look up and then say firmly: COME IN»</i>
With their text at the last minute, they were happy if they could remember the lines and just said them straight as intended.
But did the mac change my life ?
Well I used it professionally from 1989. The show lasted 11 years, 40 per year. Luckily I had used FilemakerPlus from the beginning to archive text, tapes & crews.
When eventually computers came into the station offices and they saw they couldn’t get the same output as I had, I was “accused” of wasting my time on layouts and so on. As they were already jumping up and down if they could print a letter without having <i>yours sincerely on a different page I had to be a computerfreak. That reputation was firmly established when I could eject a disk out of a Mac by doing menu:special:eject while the guys using (!) pincers got nowhere. Beeb, you’re right; even the mac is just a computer and computers frighten people. Still, the mac allowed me independance, less interference and sometimes respect not for the content of my work but for the look.
Once I impressed a producer with a script, mainly because in Pagemaker I had set the page number at an angle of 45°. I really had to be some creative wizard to come up with that one.
To my amazement the office were all Mac Users. But their efficiency of using it was even lower than a Windows office. The Mac is soooo easy, the user shouldn’t learn anything.That attitude is less common nowadays, still the Article of the Month shows it hasn’t completely disappeared.
The computer, and especially the Mac, enhances productivity for the productive, speeds up efficiency but only for those who already have the Efficiency-gene. However, it never saved me from being bled by the bloodsuckers. It only made me win sometimes, like when they wanted to do a rerun, but I have the only database with a reference to the original tapes. But in the end, the stupid win because they are more of them and they are organized and work together, whilst the creative or on the look out for other creatives to challenge them and compete, on whatever topic they can find.
The Mac changed my life but it won’t change the world.
But did the mac change my life ?
In art circles, what I said is considered a critique not an insult.
Damn, why didn’t I think of that!?
Ben and vb, I was merely a “critiquing” you, not insulting you. So no worries.
Beeb, you’re right
Yes, I know. The sooner you guys realize this, the easier life will be for all of us.
Damn, why didn’t I think of that (first) ?
Because, as I said, you are not creative!
So @ all regular posters in favour of an easier life, join in me this song for a better life:
OooooH
Beeb is right, is right, is right
Beeb is right/ Beeb is right
Beeb is right, is right, is right
He is always right!
Hey
Boy, am I good! Just got a phone call from Mariah Carey’s manager. She’ll make an All Stars Song of it if she gets the “OooOooOOOOooooOh”-line. Take that ! no insult but the boys band will join Robbie Williams to take on the HEY -line.
The lines in between will be made into a musical or something very boring but definitely with Nicole Kidman, (now to anger the aussies, who was not born in Down Under, Mel Gibson was born in New York, Bee Gees born in Great Britain)
Beeb however will get no royalties of it because he has no permission to use the name ©Beeblebrox.
Ben and vb, I was merely a “critiquing” you, not insulting you.
If only, Beeblebrox, if you spent just one percent of your time here critiquing I wouldn’t be shaking my head in disbelief at this comment.
WAWA…
I hate the creative-technical dichotomy. There is no such thing. Confronted with many problems the guy who put central heating in our house came up with several very creative solutions. Creative as in the definition, to come up with a non-standard solution for a problem. Having an urge to paint your bed room pink is not creativity. If creativity is ever used it is certainly in technical jobs.
...you rock.
Beeblebrox,
There is a HUGE difference between the word “moron” and the word “retard”. Moron (or idiot, etc) is not used a pejorative for a class of citizens. Retard is.
I’m a Jaycee and have spent time volunteering for places like Camp Virginia Jaycee.
http://campvirginiajaycee.com/
To caregivers and health workers who live and work with special needs men, women and children, the word “retard” is as bad as the word “nig…”
Your comparison is bullshit. Just because I didn’t jump up and defend someone else gives you no right to call me names when I was not the one name calling in the first place… and your continued use of “retard” (in the form of “Mac-tard”) is hugely offensive.
If you think I’m a hypocrite, why not call me a hypocrite? Why do you continually use the word “tard” or “ass” or other perjorative when less offensive language would suffice to get your point across?
Because you don’t have a valid point and the only way for you to “win” is to use shocking language.
But did the mac change my life ?
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