So I spent a good deal of the last few years thrashing Macs. Or, more correctly, thrashing the Mac users who are convinced that a shiny piece of hardware makes them in some way “cool”. I also had the misfortune of working in multimedia company where one or two of these “cool people” insisted on using Macs and made life hell for the rest of us, with font problems, format problems and so on.
But then a few things happened. Thing 1 was that I went to the Adobe Max convention in San Francisco and saw that 80% of the people there – some of the geekiest tech people in the world – had MacBooks. Hmm, I thought, interesting.
And thing 2 was that I experienced the pain of trying to do my irritating twice yearly Windows install on a crappy PC laptop. And after a few days of this my facade cracked. So I marched to my local Mac shop, threw far too much money on the counter and said “Mac me, my good sir!”
And, do you know, I liked the thing immediately. Once I got over the cuteness, that is. It just runs and does what its supposed to do. There is no stress, and that is what a tool is supposed to do – reduce your stress and become invisible by doing its job well.
And the touchpad – oh boy oh boy, the touchpad! Two fingers, three fingers, four, yes FOUR fingers at once! Try it out and see what I mean.
So yes, I have bitched about Macs for ages, I know! But I have also always said that the ability to change our minds in the presence of new evidence is what makes us intelligent. Or at least that’s MY defence.
Plus it IS kind of nice to sit in a cafe, sip on a latté and work on one’s poetry, looking up with a superior grin every now and then. Jolly nice indeed.
/ paddy
Paddy K 
Yes . Your ability to look before you rant has always been minimal!
Sean: And that’s why you love me!
Finally, you’re on board. Way to have an open mind! Us Mac users are well pleased. From now on, your life will always be easier. Trust me.
Мне кажется очень полезная штука.
Good. Now you are ripe for the Church of $cientology.
expateek: And if it isn’t, I’ll get back to you!
Avertedd: Вы!
Johan: Do they have shiny white hardware too?
Oh yes, when you get to the planet Xhshrwyttifxj and meet Ming the Cruel everyone gets shiny white hardware.
This discussion reminds me that I need to buy a new Mac this year, the one I have is now four years old…
Welcome to the light side! I agree with both expateek and Sean. LOL!
There are four types of people out there:
1) Mac people who think they are superior to Windows users.
2) Windows users who think Mac people are inferior and just trying to be different and trendy.
3) Linux people who think everyone else is just not smart enough to use Linux.
4) People who don’t care what other people do and just want the damn thing to work properly.
I suspect you are now number 4. Now just be careful not to end up being a number 1….since even people who use a Mac usually hate that guy.
Remember you told me to stop using discs for back-up and get memory keys? A serious computer guy – as in, makes his living from – told me under no circumstances to rely on a memory key for back-up. He says they are good for portable use, but notoriously fragile. Just dropping one can cause your material to disappear. So, while I am using memory keys, I am also backing things on discs. Just thought you might want to know. Oh, and in my experience the publishing industry is PC, while the film industry and most visual artists are MAC. Word vs image. And that’s why MACs are cooler because filmmakers and artists are cooler.
PS Your Mac looks really cool.
ladyfi: I’m still waiting for the “I told you so”…
Kelly: I believe I am a 4. Although I do feel a BIT superior…
OR Melling: Yeah that’s true – they are good for short-term backing up but I use an external hard drive myself for long term stuff. And hang on, who says film-makers are cooler than writers, eh? I don’t buy that! (And BTW, it’s NOT my Mac, it’s just an image I found on the web. Biggest give-away -we don’t have Starbucks over here. But shhhh…)
Everyone knows filmmakers are cooler than writers, P. They go to Cannes and Sundance and the Oscars and stuff. (Writers do, too, but no one pays any attention to them there.) I hate to break it to you, kiddo, but we aren’t cool at all. Most of us are reclusive, stuttering, badly dressed, faintly smelly, four-eyed introverts. Seriously, name me ONE mega cool writer alive today.
OR Melling: Ummmmm…Bill Bryson? China Mieville? That female horror writer with the really cool name that I forget right now? But OK, I’m beginning to see your point…
I guess you mean Poppy Z. Brite, no? China Miéville is mega cool. Neil Gaiman’s OK, too.
Perhaps you need to read this:
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/30/39-apple-products/
Johan Anglemark: Yeah that was the one! Neil Gaiman could be counted as cool – cool for a geek, anyway.
Mike Leane: Nice! That’s sums up my feelings too. I intend to be a Mac owner while scorning other Mac owners. It just might work!
Hmm, can’t agree with the whole Macs are better than Windows/PC, it’s more of an anything’s better than Vista thing for me – I used NT and then XP for years, and both largely did what they were supposed to do.
DrDan: Vista is the devils toe-sweat, that much is clear. XP was fine, except for when the OS got clogged up once a year and had to be reinstalled. That’s what I’m trying to avoid with the new shiny mac thing. Time will tell!
[…] Image from Paddy K Ben Popper writes at the intersection of culture and technology. His work has been published in the NY Times, Washington Post, Fast Company, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic and many others. He lives at http://www.benpopper.com […]