Well, I am so tired of following down the rabbit hole of chasing the latest and greatest tech. I also realize some platforms play on me more, which drives me to spend more money. So, to try and stop myself, I am forcing myself to make a change for not platform reasons, but to get me to stop spending money… so here are the changes I am going to make.
Changing Phones and Watch
I am going back to Android, but this time, a mid-range Android. For this, I have decided not to go with Samsung this time, but rather the Pixel. I picked up the Pixel 9a base model during an end-of-year sale. You may find it funny that I am choosing Android over iPhone… but, honestly, apps and stuff tend to cost me more money on iPhone than on Android. By that, I mean I use fringe apps written by small devs, and well… I do like to support small devs; that said, many of them have Android versions that don’t cost but still let me donate through methods that give them bigger cuts and don’t require in-app fees.
I also want to point out that, since it’s an iPhone, many of the accessories and things I would get for my phone tend to have a higher upcharge. I also find it harder to block ads on my iPhone than on Android devices. Finally, just the latest version of iOS has been way less stable for me than Android… which is just sad… iOS used to be a really stable OS, but it feels like Android has finally become more stable, at least on certain devices.
As for my watch, I am trying the Amazfit, which I ordered, and it is just shy of 100 bucks. I will be interested in writing up how it works for me once I get it and have a chance to leverage it. But I didn’t want to go down the rabbit hole of getting the fancy watches and high-end tech. I just wanna live moderately, and see what it’s like to use budget tech in this era.
Selling my Macs
Well, the other thing here is, don’t get me wrong. I think macOS is pretty cool, especially with Apple Silicon. However, my tech brain pushes me, the more I use them, to want the latest and most powerful models… this is a me issue, and I know it. That said, I want to force myself back to my Framework Laptop. It is a slightly older model, but it has never felt sluggish or problematic to me. This will also allow me to continue to feel good with the development of Linux and still feel like I am getting the best new software.
I used to daily drive Linux and then moved to MacOS, and I just feel like this move back to Linux will make me feel a bit better about stopping my brain from wanting the “latest” hardware, because new features will not be locked behind new hardware as often with Linux. My stuff is just going to get the new features under this move. I am also still a UNIX/Linux Systems Engineer at my job, so it makes sense in that context as well.
Making changes to my habits
I am finally going to do proper meal prep to stop my long days in the office from turning into not wanting to cook when I get home. I’ve been working so much more lately, as my day job has moved to fewer people with arguably more work. That said, this will help my savings from the cutting back I have already done, but it will also make it easier for me not to have excuses.
Lastly, I need to start going back to the gym, so I will be making that change as well because I would really like to get back to going to the gym and not feeling so tired all the time. I know I have been depressed a lot because of work and lots of other “stuff” going on in the world… I think working out will at least help a bit on that front as well.
