Chris WiegmanI’ve spent a lot of time this Fall thinking about what I would like to change in my tech in 2024. This isn’t an easy question as, at least for the most part, my current tech works for me.
Given that, it becomes a question of what I want any changes to accomplish. That answer is actually pretty simple. As I’ve moved back into Apple for my devices and Microsoft (via GitHub and VS Code) for my development work I simply want to move to more ethical services for at least one part of my tech.
Of course even saying “more ethical” is up to interpretation so, in this case, I want to move away from big tech to tech that is less exploitive of its users and society as a whole.
I would like to think this will be easy, but that would be a lie. At one point nearly all my services were off of big tech and it caused my family and I nothing but problems. This time around I need to think smaller.
Realistically I think I have two things that I really can change in 2024, my editor and where I store my code. I’ve tried plenty of alternatives to what I’m using today and, at least in the past, they’ve fallen well short. To make this work I’ll need to rethink how I use this tech and I’m OK with that. I don’t know how this is going to work, yet, but I think it is an option worth pursuing.
There is little else I want to change
The simple truth is that, for my own convenience, there is little else I want to change today. My Mac works well for all the tasks I need it for, my phone, tablet, watch and even TV integrate nearly seamlessly allowing me to access what I need, where I need it without issue. When I want to step away from Apple I even have a wonderful laptop running Linux that is capable of nearly all of my dev tasks.
In other words, my tech life is good.
I think I need to remember this more. As I pursue any changes at all I need to be very careful that they actually are better either in function or in how they align with my values. This is going to be quite a challenge.