Embracing change
As I wrote in this post, back in September 2008, I used to be a Windows guy. In fact I was borderline fanboy of Windows. But decided that I wanted to try out this Mac thingy that everyone was talking about and all the alpha-geeks were using.
Now, some 3 and a half years later, I’m still on the Mac - in fact, It turns out that what I mentioned in that post; of minimizing the need for Windows has been a true goal of mine and something that I’ve accomplished quite good. Some would probably call me a Apple fanboy now, with the amount of Apple devices I’ve acquired since my small start in 2008. I can’t blame them. But I’m not preaching it!
Ever since I started that branch of my life, I must say that the operating system has become less and less important, although I now have my preference going the general direction of away from Windows. But I think doing a switch like this has had a very positive effect on a number of other things, especially my perspective on software development. Around the areas of how I work, what I think is important when writing software and such. One could of course argue that I would broaden my mind naturally, without going to the extreme of doing my work on a different platform. But I beg to differ. The reason for that is that I think, no matter what platform you’re on, that your mindset is colored by the culture on the platform, and if that platform is a commercial one driven by a company, you’re also likely to be colored by the values of that particular company.
I think by constantly seeking out new things, changing platforms every now and then, or just trying out things in general, will make you a better and more reflected person. There are so many things one is missing out on if you believe in one truth, and from my experience, there is also a lot of truths that people will tell you about the competitor - from people belonging to the community surrounding a platform, this applies to most platforms.
To me, it has been an awesome journey switching - I’ve learnt so much from just doing that. It has opened my mind to things like Ruby, and crazy ass rocket science things like HTML, CSS and JavaScript (Sarcasm applied). I’ve grown in productivity at the expense of simplifying my tools - no longer need Visual Studio, nor Resharper to accomplish being productive in .net. I demand more of myself, more knowledge, more precision, higher velocity - as a result.
So, if you’re sitting there - stuck on a platform and haven’t really tried out anything else. Go crazy, try out something else, go to a user group - if available, representing that parallel universe. Chances are you might learn something, expand your horizon and become a better you. Go and embrace change - trust me, you’ll hate me the first weeks but thank me in the long run.. :)