The Posh Pen Paradox: when writers and artists fear their tools

This is why when I got my first motorcycle my buddy told me "lets find a beater on craigslist thats been in a crash".

I paid about $2k for it, and that yamaha had seen a hell of a dump at 50mph and had scratches that looked like a banshee had its way with the left side because it insulted her mothers size or whatever.

But damn if he wasn't right that when I inevitably had it fall over whle practicing in the parking lot that I didn't care much. Plus after riding that (not quite a) beater I was much better prepared for stuff with more zoom to it.

I think buying cheap/refurb/broken and learning from that is definitely the way to go when starting/learning. You learn how to appreciate the good stuff later on.

Just like how now I can pretty much use unix to a large degree after using them for ~20ish years, I tend to stick to osx+nix to get me up to speed. I keep my configurations portable to open/freebsd and linux as well on the off chance I need to move around, but other than that I tend to not be too committed to what I'm running.

Was wondering if guitar or culinary arts would show up. I read in Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential" that Chefs bring their own knives. Hence an attachment to the tool and appreciation of quality. Guitars are similar, in that a mint condition guitar is nice to look at but kind of scary to play. The highest selling instruments have been famous for who played them, when, and where, not the brand or how close to new they might be. It's funny how artisans who base their livelihood on tools relate to them versus the drop-in tourist who starts cheap and gives up easy.

Another reason for this may be that skilled people know enough to ignore marketing claims.

Let's take guitars. You can get a squire (introductory model), a Fender made in Mexico (intermediate, a few hundred dollars) or an American standard (top of the line, a few thousand dollars). Most working musicians I know will stick with the Mexican fender, because they know there's not much difference between them and the Americans (The Mexican guitars are quite nice), and you can gig with it without worrying that a scratch or nick will tank the value.

So who buys the American fenders? People in their 40s and 50s who play guitar, but not professionally. For them, the guitar is a collectors piece. The story behind the guitar matters more than how it plays. Don't get me wrong, American standards are great guitars. But unless you're looking for a very specific tone, the Mexican fender will do the job.

While I generally agree, a note I would add about guitars: you don't need to buy a super expensive guitar to start but you do want to make sure it's properly setup (usually costs < $50 at a guitar store). Action that is too high can be a huge motivation killer for the novice guitarist and they might not even know the issue can be fixed.

Whenever I buy a new guitar, I deliberately damage it - a quick scrape against a belt buckle or a dent against the edge of a table. Even if you know that the guitar will have a hard working life, you can't help but handle it with kid gloves when it's still all shiny and new. The first ding always hurts, so you might as well get it over with.

I wonder if this has any bearing on the popularity of reliced guitars. Aesthetics is undoubtedly a part, as with pre-distressed jeans, but I can't help thinking that some players are more comfortable with an instrument that has taken a beating before it left the factory.

Depends on the skill. Low-quality tools can interfere with effective learning and thwart budding passions.

"The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one's self. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution." - Igor Stravinsky

I took up watercolor painting this year without any painting experience, and I'm having a blast. I began with cheap paint and brushes despite hearing that professional quality tools are better. Now I'm gradually buying better supplies. As a result, there's two points of value I feel I gained through this method:

1. I was able to start with very low cost, and could fearlessly practice without the regret of wasting expensive product. (With that said, I acknowledge that watercolor painting is already one of the least expensive ways to paint)

2. As I upgrade my paints and brushes, I'm learning why professional tools are better. There are pretty clear differences between cheap and expensive paint, but without experiencing both, one can't really evaluate their value.

I think it's really a matter of setting expectations. If one starts by suffering to achieve perfection, they'll probably quit. I think they'd better serve themselves by finding joy in the act itself, and letting that feeling drive improvement. Even masters fail to achieve true perfection from time to time.

I find this a bit strange; generally the best thing about more professional cameras is better controls, not better image quality. I don't like Canons of that era because of the limited dynamic range, but a 6D is a very ergonomic camera and handles better than any consumer Canon or Nikon.

I have an issue with very capable, modern cameras too. I have a Sony A7r, which I find too versatile, to the point of being distracting unless I'm focused on getting a very specific picture. I prefer using high end, but older, film cameras, like a Contax G2 or an Hasselblad.

For programmers I think it is more about the tools, you may keep yourself from spending too much on a keyboard, mouse or a new monitor, maybe a license for your favorite ide.

For example I remember when I bought one of the early LCD monitors, using expensive CRTs until then. The difference was huge, suddenly I could code for 10 hours straight without feeling tired at all!

On the other hand I kept away from SSDs for more than I should. Again, such a huge productivity boost by making my computer so much responsive that immediately I thought “why didn't I buy this 2-3 years ago”.

A more recent example, couple years ago I moved and at the first couple months hadn't set up my home office, so I started using my laptop's keyboard and just kept doing it. I thought it was ok until recently I switched back to an external keyboard. My typing improved tremendously, much faster, less errors, actually blind typing all the time now. Again, inertia didn't let me realize what I was losing all these years.

But I also think it is important to start from lesser tools and upgrade as you go. A novice most of the time can't really appreciate a professional tool and as many people wrote in other comments, obsessing too much with the tools at the start can hinder the path towards your real goal.

Every whisk(e)y lover needs to have a go-to "scoffin' whiskey" for when you need a drink, as well as some good stuff for when you want to revel in it, wether alone or with a fellow aficionado (or even just friends who enjoy being given the expensive shit). For me, my scoffin' whiskey is Grant's. Cheap and cheerful, and easily available in 1l bottles.

I have more blank notebooks than I'm comfortable admitting (without Internet pseudonymity)

Did I crack the time travel function? Are you me from the future sent back to save me? Im looking at my case full of metal bound, cover themed, professional looking, etc notebooks that has grown quite absurd. If I’m honest with myself everything I’ve built in the last decade has come from the post it notes I have scrawled everywhere.

I’m going to grab one and make my shopping list right now. Thank you kind stranger.

I have a similar story. I had a thinkpad x201 and it broke. I opened it up, tried to fix it, couldn't. After a couple of weeks having no computer, I created a OpenBSD installer USB from another computer (the installer image was surprisingly only 30 MiB, so I could easily create the USB in a couple of minutes from someone else's computer).

I installed OpenBSD on an old Asus 1000HE netbook I had lying around. I used the machine for a couple of weeks, and I felt I was really productive. I wrote a simple network manager, learned Org-Mode, learned Xorg customization, read Atlas Shrugged in Emacs :) ...

Then I built myself a desktop, installed Windows 10 on it. Got a 32 inch big screen. I am nowhere as productive, because everything comes so easy.

There is something about spartan environments, that makes you more disciplined and focused. On the other hand, you need comfortable tools to go further.

Another interesting point is, even when I was building my desktop, I picked out the cheapest parts, didn't even buy a case. I put the components in two adjacent shoe-box sized cartons, and hooked a push button to the mother board power pins. I could've easily spent much more money on it, but didn't. I guess I also fear making a huge commitment to the tools I use.

> at this point I'd offer to show people who think so my public GitHub profile as evidence

That evidence won't hold up because you can access GitHub repositories using Subversion :)

https://help.github.com/articles/support-for-subversion-clie...

I used cvs, svn and git, sequentially when they were most popular. Every step along the way was a big improvement, and the step from svn to git is a much bigger improvement than cvs to svn.

Svn is a pile of crap. Remote operations take ages. Switching branches takes ages. Applying the same diff to multiple branches - you're better off extracting your own diff files and applying them manually. In fact creating branches is such a PITA you just don't bother. Stashing work in progress - again, create your own diff files. Svn was such a pile of crap I built my own system to extract and restore diffs of work in progress, as well as a tool using 3-way diffs for handling conflicts when base moved on after I needed to restore my diff.

The difference between a screen protector and scratches buttons on a guitar’s body is the scratches on the body do not affect the guitar’s performance whereas a scratch on the glass of your screen could have permanently affect the use of your phone.

The same way you adjust to cold waters. Just jump in! Embrace the discomfort. You'll get past it soon enough. And then reward yourself with a hot shower and a hot cup of coffee after (metaphorically).

Just get in there and fuck shit up; it is never perfect and trim hides everything ;)

If it turns out perfect you might as well saved yourself the time and bought one. The difference between store bought and homemade is the imperfections that sometimes help, sometimes hurt, but always show it's your own creation.

Which is more respectful to the wood, a half-finished and unused cabinet or an aesthetically flawed but useful one?

Care to elaborate? I think you must be talking about things like equipment rather than film? I suspect that with those, the wear-and-tear of using them is gradual enough that they don't suffer from the problems the article goes into, whereas for stuff like paint brushes, the wear quickly becomes noticeable.

You sure about that? I always thought I never was good enough to "deserve" an SLR, but I recently took one on a vacation and was pleasantly surprised that, not only were my photos better, but I was also able to improve on the automatic settings in many cases (weird lighting, etc), albeit with some trial and error.

High quality tools tend to raise the "quality ceiling" but also tend to be unforgiving of mistakes. Sometimes all you need is a little more confidence in your own ability, and some room to make mistakes with the fancy new tool.