o t h e r t i m e

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…

There was a time when I really, really cared about how people used computers. It was a side effect of my time with Free software. The community and the ideals around the freedom to use one’s hardware in any way one chooses is intoxicating in a way that only die-hard nerds can appreciate. It feeds into that need that some nerds (me) have to be right. Technically right. The best kind of right.

The desire to spread the gospel of Free software led me to try and convince everyone and their dog to abandon the way that they work in favor of an idealistically cleaner solution. I managed to create a few converts and did my small part to help along the adoption of all things Free. To this day, I believe that there are places where Free software is the best option. But I’m not going to tell you about it.

I got serious…

Somewhere along the line, about the time my buddy El Jeffe got me hooked on OS X, something inside of me changed. The purpose of these machines was highlighted for me. I can trace it back to the first time that I used GarageBand to record a song. Upon starting up the app, I created a new project and it was ready for me to record. That was it. No entering sample rates or file types – just press the big red button and play something into the microphone. I didn’t think about using the application. I didn’t even think about the computer. Everything was reduced to the bare minimum: the task at hand and me.

For someone who tweaks hardware and software for fun, this experience in anathema. There’s never a time that thought is eliminated from the equation. We have to consider interrupts, kernel settings, available memory, and a host of things that have acronyms longer than the URLs of most web sites. To simply use the computer made no sense at all.

But it made me serious.

Without the computer to screw around with, The Work was laid bare. There were no more excuses about the bit box. All that was left was me and my ideas – or apparent lack thereof. I had cleared the table of my unnecessary motion and made room for doing what everyone is afraid of doing: getting down to The Work.

Nerdery can hide The Fear…

I was pretty badly broken down when I was in my first year at NYU. My creative well ran dry. I was a scared little fish in the biggest ocean on Earth. I couldn’t string together two phrases to save my life and it really did fell like my life depended on it. But I was a Music Technology student. There were so many gadgets and formulae in which to lose myself, I could completely ignore the elephant on the table: what are you gonna do with all of these toys?

I spent hours every day writing code. I sampled rooms for my reverb program. I made a library of sound effects. I created environments for improvisation in Max and any other program I could get my hands on. Hell, I learned Lingo in Director! I covered myself with a blanket of software and hardware in such a way as to create the illusion of getting things done.

This was unhealthy. While I learned things that I use every day, I did it at the expense of my creative work. There was nothing in this game that enhanced what I was doing and while it’s not entirely fair to say that it was an act of avoidance, there is certainly a trace of that in there. And that little seed grew to chew up all of the time I would give it. Let’s face it, every hour spent jerking around and compiling a kernel was an hour lost for The Work. How many rabbit holes did I jump down in the endless search for a way to string applications together to…um…just because I should be able to?

What’s a “Workflow”?

When one is up to all hours figuring out what modules need to be loaded for the kernel to recognize a USB device, there really isn’t a need for a way to get things done. After all, nothing is getting done. But once the non-work falls away and it becomes obvious that there are other things that can be done with the tools at hand, it’s good to find some kind of process.

This is where the Free software evangelist exits.

My experience with the Mac showed me that everything on a system should inter-operate without my dropping to the system level. Less thinking, more doing. The applications that I selected at first were based on a few features that they had and not necessarily on how well they got along with others.

It’s not obvious at first, but the thing is, it’s rare that a single piece of software will take one all the way from capturing an idea to a finished product. Many try. Most fail. There’s always something that the monolithic program doesn’t do well. And what’s missing in all of the preceding sentences, class? The implicit “for me.”

As I developed my most basic workflow, I began to understand that my right way and someone else’s right way might not match. I had to respect that. And in respecting that, my ability to say to someone that they absolutely must do something in the way that I prescribe, disappeared. The more I came to appreciate the differences between how two minds work, the less I wanted to be so full of myself as to tell someone else how to do something. Especially if that person was producing their Work.

I don’t have applications that fail…

Interesting tidbit: the number one reason that I use a MacBook Pro instead of another flavor of laptop is that the time it takes for the machine to wake up is exactly as long as it takes me to open the lid and put my fingers on the home row of the keyboard. At first, that was really, really neat. Now, it is a requirement. The difference between then and now? Kids.

I have two children. They are at the center of my life. My creative work finds its way into the cracks and fills any extra air bubbles that develop in my life. This means the 20 or even 10 minute breaks that I have are used in the pursuit of something surrounding The Work. If it takes 30 seconds for my computer to reach a usable state, that is a significant loss for me. I’m not willing to sacrifice that time. And I am not tolerant of failure. My Mac has yet to disappoint me. I open it and it works. And all of the applications that I use work. All the time.

Wait. What?

Let me say that again. All of the applications that I use, work all of the time. But how can that be? Simple. I don’t use applications that fail.

One more time?

Here is how that works. The first thing I do is make sure that I play with a new app for a while before I become dependent upon it. If it crashes or requires me to shudder reboot, then it goes away. And if I’ve paid for that application? Well, we’ll get to that in a minute.

If it works out, then I will slowly start to integrate the app into the things that I do. Hopefully, it accomplishes something so well that I don’t even know it’s there. That’s the best ending to the story. The application becomes such a seamless part of what I do that it disappears. That’s the way Logic is for me. I don’t even know that I’m using it anymore. And that’s GREAT for me. The same can be said for Scrivener. Or Notebooks on the iPhone and iPad. Or Dropbox.

I can’t stress enough that the only way that things work for me is if I am firm with the things that fail. They go away. For good. I don’t check for updates or email the developer. I don’t read forums. I don’t tweak settings or drop to the command line. It just dies. The end.

To be absolutely clear, if I paid for your software, I paid for it with the implicit understanding that it would do what you said it would do. If I didn’t try the free version first (assuming it exists) then shame on me, but if your FTP app fails to move files, well, it’s not doing what you said it would despite the really awesome interface and gnarly profile settings. I asked it to move my files and it didn’t. It goes away.

This sounds kind of harsh and to be completely honest I’m much more tolerant of Free software to this day. But regardless of the source, if it doesn’t work, it’s out. And yes, that’s very anti-community and it’s not seen as a nice way to behave by most software developers, but turn it around for a minute. If you paid for car insurance and when you got into an accident they said, “Hey, sorry about that but we can’t pay up. Maybe wait until our release next quarter?” See where I’m going?

Software is at a point now where it’s a part of most everything we do. It mediates our communication. It informs our world. It is essential to The Work. When software fails me, it wastes my time. And I can’t get any more of that so I don’t feel that I owe anyone more of my time than I’ve already wasted.

Man, no matter how I say it, it comes out harsh. Maybe that’s because the effect of failing software is pretty harsh. It’s the nature of the beast.

And speaking of support…

So at the end of this rant we come back around to how other people use software. What platform is chosen and the reasons that feed into that decision. The thing is, they aren’t my choices. You’re free to make the choice and you are free to support it.

I used to debug computers for people. I used to install operating systems and waste hours figuring out why Word wouldn’t open a document that I didn’t create for a project that wasn’t mine. I made suggestions. I lobbied for other platforms and software, but in the end, I don’t control anyone else’s decisions or workflows. So along with my desire to change the way someone works goes my desire to apply effort to repair the failures of his tools.

Does this mean I don’t help my mom with her email? Nope. I do. Because she made me and it’s in the contract. Does it mean that I don’t help my dad load his iPod? Nope. See above. But I’m certainly not going to roll into someone’s space and get sucked down the hole of “How should I do…” The world is too big. Software is too mature. People should be too savvy for that now. Many still aren’t, but that doesn’t change my stance. If you didn’t make me or my kids, no support for you.

Coda

The funny thing is that I go looking for people who do what I won’t. I love hearing people who are passionate about their software and systems. I pick up a lot of great information that way. I learn a hell of a lot from the freaks over at Mac Power Users and Back to Work but my urge to share is tempered by my desire to do The Work.

That said, my next little ditty will be all about my experimentation with the iPad as a musical device and what I have discovered over the last month or so.