Does your computer bring you joy?

It is strange after working with computers since 1978 that today I ask myself this question: Does my computer bring me joy?

My entire work life I have been in front of a computer. Computers are tools. They do a job for me, and I never felt joy from using a computer. Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate computers and what they do and I have felt joy from the work I have done on them, but never have I felt joy from the computer itself.

That all changed when I got my M1 14″ MacBook Pro. I didn’t realize it at first. it was after all just another computer that would do a job for me, but after a couple of weeks, I realized that I had a sense of joy when I was in front of this machine.

Why? Why does this machine make me happy? I’ve spent some time thinking about this, and the first thing I realized is that battery life is so damn good that I almost never think about it. I am currently handling a stream, and I have been for over 7 hours. Battery life is not even a concern. I generally charge this machine at the end of the day, and then I am good to go for the entire next day. I’ve even forgotten my power brick when running to the office and it just doesn’t matter. I have never had a computer with such great battery life and that brings me joy.

Messages: In my business we use texting a bunch and the fact that I can do that easily from my computer has been a real time saver. Today in fact I’m juggling four conversations, and it is just the easiest thing to pop from message to message. The real benefit is being able to copy and paste information that is needed into messages.

Screen Capture and QuickTime: I know you can does this in Windows but Apple has just made this so easy it brings me joy. Need to trim up an MP4 file to post. Easy. Need to shoot a video real quick to post. Easy. With QuickTime I am able to record myself, talking head, or grab my screen for an instructional video. Yes, I can do this on any system, but the ease and the quality of how Apple has executed this is what brings me joy. The integration of great camera and QuickTime features allow me to be creative rather than spending my time thinking about how I am going to get the job done.

To summarize I can do all these things on any platform, but it isn’t always easy. It takes work, or an app, or a workaround. Apple has managed to make these tasks easy with great integration into the system.

I am finding freedom, creativity and joy that I have not felt in a very long time. In fact, the joy I feel takes me back to when the Internet had just started and I was able to view content online. It was mind blowing back then, and it made me feel wonder and joy. That was a long time ago.

So, does your computer bring you joy? If it doesn’t look at other options and see if there is something out there that would really make you happy and joyous. We live in a marvelous time where technology can finally bring us joy.