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The lazy user's guilt

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iphigenie:
The problem I face is info-overload and forcing myself to let go.
There's just too much to do and too few hours to do it in - I've had to unsubscribe from several interesting blog feeds, for instance - there just isn't enough time to go through everything. I have even forced myself to stop upgrading software that I'm happy with. I don't know how to describe the feeling, it's just a slow-kill kind of frustration, there's a constant conflict between the perfectionist within who wants to do everything to the last detail and the pragmatist
-nosh (March 11, 2008, 04:20 PM)
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Yes, I think that is very similar for me - I dont want every activity to be a learning curve, to save time and not be spread too thin. On the other hand I also want to do everything properly and make good use of what i already have, because just buying something when you already have something adequate or could whipe something up feels wasteful.

Strangely enough in some other areas I tend to go for the "no waste, use what you have even if it means reading up, trial and error etc." but when it comes to IT I have gone the other way to the total opposite (pay someone to do my email service when I used to run mail servers! buy new software when i already have some that could probably do the job but that i havent used much). More and more when it comes to the computer, time and ease win.

But still, being around here I am humbled how many of you manage to accomplish stuff in their spare time. I used to be like this, loads of projects etc. then years of startup work-around-the-clock madness made me lose all the hobbies, from creative stuff to sports to writing code for fun and learning. Plan to recover some this year, now that I have a cushy job but must not fall into the trap of everything becoming a project :Thmbsup:

iphigenie:
This made me try to puzzle why there's software with all the cool features, and then there's software that you *like* better. It might on paper have less features, it might be more expensive, or more quirky, or or or. And yet when you try it you like it better, it just fits you better, or something...

Curt:
... I have the wirekeys tool, ..., and never done much more than trawling the help file for a few tweaks (like the file open/save dialog improvement plug in). -iphigenie (March 11, 2008, 03:11 PM)
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This statement about WireKeys made me think of all the times I have felt certain that I knew which program offered which feature, only later to realize I was wrong and it was some other program, and I often concluded that the false memory must have been caused by how seldom I use most of my programs. I say this because there is no such WireKeys open/save-dialog plugin, that I know of.

Some months ago I took the time to set up my XP the way I want it to be - more or less. After that, I have only been fooling around to maybe find some more add-ons for my Firefox (46 by now!), or to discover new image editors, or whatever. I take great joy in downloading the various programs I am being offered each day via Freeware World Team.dk, but your post reminded me that I have a lot of programs, hundreds, that I have only tried once! And that was when they were installed. Install & Forget, can unfortunately have this meaning as well!!

iphigenie:
This statement about WireKeys made me think of all the times I have felt certain that I knew which program offered which feature, only later to realize I was wrong and it was some other program, and I often concluded that the false memory must have been caused by how seldom I use most of my programs. I say this because there is no such WireKeys open/save-dialog plugin, that I know of.
-Curt (March 11, 2008, 07:08 PM)
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It's actually a pretty nice variation on the theme... from the website:

For example after installing WireKeys you will get great shell enhancement plugin that gives you quick jump to your favorite folders in Common Open/Save dialogs (including dialogs of the Microsoft Office applications like Word, Excel, Outlook),in Windows Explorer and Total Commander.
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I actually use more than wirekeys than I think I do, especially on the tray/bar management as well as some of the windows management, but far less than I ought to.

The tool really needs someone to look at the configuration options and make them a bit clearer/easier to find. The plugin in question is called "shell extender" and you have to open not the main configuration but the plug in configuration. Even when I know its there it takes me a while to find it (it just did take me 10 minutes!)

app103:
Someone once told me something about the thinking and behavior of the average person when it comes to learning features and how to use them. It was related to watches and cell phones, but I think it probably could apply to software as well. It goes something like this:

When you get your brand new gadget, you will spend at most, 3 days (a weekend) learning what it can do. You will spend about an hour reading the instructions on how to configure it and learning how to use various features. You will spend the rest of the time playing with whatever you learned in that first hour. If you didn't learn it in that hour, to you that feature doesn't exist.

So you have this watch or cell phone for awhile and some new one catches your eye...a new watch or cell phone with a particular feature, and you will buy it just for that feature and chances are the old one can already do it but you just never discovered it or learned how to use it in that first hour, when you first got it.  :-[

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