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Need help with Mac buying addiction.
- Thread starter iSlave
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There is only one sure cure to this materialistic disease you're afflicted with. Give me your MBP. You need to go cold turkey - no planning or deliberation. Just hand it to me and don't look back. Lift your capitalist yoke and I will bear the burden.
ButtUglyJeff
macrumors 6502a
GimmeSlack12
macrumors 603
If you're referring to my post, I completely agree. As Buddha, Neo, and Yoda have all said, there is a great difference between knowing the path and walking the path.
Poncho
macrumors 6502
Today's Western society does not adequately support the development of things that are intrinsically fulfilling; solid relationships with friends and family, gentle reflection and self-discovery, giving to others, and growth. Many people therefore feel a low level chronic sense of anxiety or inadequacy. We often do not feel 'known' to ourselves or to others.
At the same time, consumerism gives the appearance that everyone else is perpetually happy. It promises us the means to achieve that same happiness by buying their products or services. Buying something these days rarely means enjoying your own experience. Instead it means being handled to have the experience a marketer intends everyone to have. Apple gloriously provides An Unpacking Experience. Movie theaters bombard you from entry to exit with The Next Packaged Experience (Movie X with Food Combo Y).
While contemplating said purpose, we have a temporary sense of control. That's why some people obsess for hours and pour over small details. When we purchase the desired object, we may feel a temporary sense of completeness or joy. Some people imagine that everyone is looking at them as they pull out the laptop for the first time. Some people admire the perfection of the objection as a narcissist would admire their own reflection. There is a cost, however. People can become upset when the desired object does not produce a permanent sense of completeness. Some people obsess about keeping their possessions perfect. They polish and protect. They fret over every little scratch. They protect their things as they would protect their own self-esteem. They fret when the next product cycle comes and they don't own the latest and greatest.
Owning something does not provide true happiness but our experiences reinforce over and over again that they MIGHT. Perhaps the next car. Perhaps the bigger house. If you're anything like me, looking back, believing that owning something would make me happy has only in the long term made me feel less adequate.
Take a deep breath. Go for a walk. Laugh. Turn off the TV. Breathe. Give something away. Really listen to a friend. Nurture the things that really make people happy and owning things won't mean so much.
That's brilliant. And if you still really can't relinquish that upgrading bug, what about turning it on its head? What I mean is, you make 'computing on the cheap' your goal. That way, you try to use machines just powerful for your needs, software that does just what you need and no more, buy old machines and do them up, recycle and restore. That way you can still research stuff and obsess over details and enjoy that sense of control, but now you're are controlling how LITTLE of your arse is owned by The Man, and not the other way around.
'Written on an iMac G3'
At the same time, consumerism gives the appearance that everyone else is perpetually happy. It promises us the means to achieve that same happiness by buying their products or services. Buying something these days rarely means enjoying your own experience. Instead it means being handled to have the experience a marketer intends everyone to have. Apple gloriously provides An Unpacking Experience. Movie theaters bombard you from entry to exit with The Next Packaged Experience (Movie X with Food Combo Y).
While contemplating said purpose, we have a temporary sense of control. That's why some people obsess for hours and pour over small details. When we purchase the desired object, we may feel a temporary sense of completeness or joy. Some people imagine that everyone is looking at them as they pull out the laptop for the first time. Some people admire the perfection of the objection as a narcissist would admire their own reflection. There is a cost, however. People can become upset when the desired object does not produce a permanent sense of completeness. Some people obsess about keeping their possessions perfect. They polish and protect. They fret over every little scratch. They protect their things as they would protect their own self-esteem. They fret when the next product cycle comes and they don't own the latest and greatest.
Owning something does not provide true happiness but our experiences reinforce over and over again that they MIGHT. Perhaps the next car. Perhaps the bigger house. If you're anything like me, looking back, believing that owning something would make me happy has only in the long term made me feel less adequate.
Take a deep breath. Go for a walk. Laugh. Turn off the TV. Breathe. Give something away. Really listen to a friend. Nurture the things that really make people happy and owning things won't mean so much.
That's brilliant. And if you still really can't relinquish that upgrading bug, what about turning it on its head? What I mean is, you make 'computing on the cheap' your goal. That way, you try to use machines just powerful for your needs, software that does just what you need and no more, buy old machines and do them up, recycle and restore. That way you can still research stuff and obsess over details and enjoy that sense of control, but now you're are controlling how LITTLE of your arse is owned by The Man, and not the other way around.
'Written on an iMac G3'
Excellent point! That reminds me of a friend who is very good at squeezing the very last bit of use out of old equipment. He was still writing very fun Amiga games a couple of years ago and shooting strange, cool films on 8mm! Pull out a typewriter and see what you write when you can't easily delete. Shoot some old 35mm film stock and be surprised with the prints you get back instead of 'chimping' and looking at the LCD after every shot! Play! Play without worrying about the quality or fidelity of your toys.
