Over the past few months, I’ve noticed a dramatic shift in my attitudes towards new technologies, new software, and new shiny gizmos. I used to go ga-ga over every new announcement from Apple, every new version of the software I use, and every new and “upgraded” camera product that was released. I used to get the itch to dump all of my old stuff immediately and go out and purchase the latest and greatest of everything I used to have. It was a bad habit that got me into heavy consumer debt, but, damn it was fun having all the coolest shiny toys.
Nowadays, I could give a rat’s ass about new stuff. Sure it’s nice to stay up-to-date on technology just to know what’s going on, but I haven’t had that same itch to buy those new items as I used to just last year. I’ve become content and satisfied with what I have right now and don’t really have any urge to change things up. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older or because I have other priorities or simply because I know that what I have now works just fine. Whatever it is, I’m becoming less and less impressed and excited about the latest and greatest.
There have been several big product announcements in the last couple of weeks that previously would’ve gotten me all excited but, instead, got a big “meh” out of me. Last week, Maya 8 and Max 9 were announced at SIGGRAPH. A couple of days ago at WWDC, Apple officially released the new Intel-based Mac Pro towers and gave a little sneak peak of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Today, Nikon announced the new D80 digital SLR along with a couple of new lenses.
All of these items are things that I know I would have fun playing with and wouldn’t mind owning. However, I just read the releases and moved on. Maya 8 means nothing to me, since I’m using Maya 7 at work and will be for the rest of my current project, and I don’t do any freelance 3D stuff at home. I don’t care about Max 9, because I don’t use Max anymore. The new Mac Pro tower is rather impressive on paper, but I only use laptops at home, and, frankly, I’d only want to upgrade to a MacBook Pro. Leopard won’t be available until Spring 2007, so it doesn’t even matter what I think about it now. And the Nikon D80? Sure it’s a nice upgrade from the D70, but I don’t need those upgrades to shoot what I do.
Although all these new toys are faster, have more features, and are much shinier than anything I have at home right now, I don’t need any of them. I don’t even have a strong desire to own any of them. Maya 7 is treating me just fine at work and at home (should I need to bring my work home). I was actually fine since Maya 5, so all these new versions don’t really mean much to me. I love my 5-year-old Powerbook Titanium, even if the built-in display no longer works. Sure, it’s “only” got an 800 MHz PowerPC G4 in it, but that’s plenty of firepower to run Photoshop, email, web, and chat. I’m totally happy with my Nikon D70. The top display panel light doesn’t work anymore, and it’s “only” 6 megapixels, but I’m still able to take great pictures with it.
So who needs these new toys? There’s always going to be something newer just around the corner, so that shiny feeling is only going to last a few months at best. It’s best to love what you have right now and keep on doing good work. And now, I’m going to take my 20-year-old LOMO LC-A and shoot some pictures on film. New tech? Meh…
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