How a new laptop made me more productive
The Macbook and a reformed Apple skeptic
Despite my reformed skeptisism, I have to clarify that I do not own an iPhone. I haven’t bought into the ecosystem. But now I can’t rule it out.
I was issued a MacBook for my last two years in an experimental high school, and up until very recently, I hadn’t used one since. They’re expensive. They’re pretentious. They’re cliché. And there are some things they just can’t do. When I went off to college, I studied engineering, which meant needing a Windows machine for a ton of Windows-only programs. Of course, now that I’m in my career, I require the same software on my work machine. There hasn’t really been a choice. But even if their had been, why would I choose something that is vastly more expensive while boasting hardware that doesn’t compare to it’s rivals. It doesn’t make sense.
But here I am, a student again. This time going for an MBA and the old Dell I used for school the first time around is dying a long, slow death. For my new schoolwork, though, I don’t need Altium or Solidworks, or any of the other programs that tied me to a PC. I finally had the freedom to make a choice, so after a lot of research, I purchased a new MacBook Pro. And despite my past life rolling my eyes and making pretentious comments to the apple lovers in my life, I have been converted.
The why:
For one, the user interface is just better.
The touchpad is in a league of its own. To make a device more pleasurable to interact with is to directly increase the desire to use it.
Can you even imagine scrolling on a touchpad that actually works and moves up and down smoothly in reasonable amounts? I do a lot of reading on my machine. My other laptop’s touchpads have been useful for only awkwardly moving the mouse and essential click functions. The scrolling while reading is one step above useless. And no way have there been any useful shortcuts that consistently work. They have been an interface that technically does the job whenever I havent had a portable mouse on hand.
But now here I am, swiping across four utterly different workflow windows with ease. Without a thought, as I swipe back to my internet browser, I can go back to a page in my history. Or quickly swipe up and see everything I have open up on my screen and choose precisely what I want. I know there are features like these on Windows machines, but none are intuitive and easily accessible. A mouse would actually be less useful. And I know I’ve only scratched the surface of cool features built into this machine. Features that start with the touchpad but continue into the keyboard.
I’ve never really thought about what it’s like to type on my laptops before. It is just something I’ve always needed to do, so I do it. I didn’t know that anything could be done to make it better or more bearable or even more fun. But I deeply enjoy typing on this machine. I’m typing on it now, and I’m not sure how to describe how oddly satisfying it is.
Now, yes, I could buy a high-end, stand-alone keyboard. But I use laptops. I like the portability, and even though I do a lot of work at a desk, I like the other chairs in my apartment too. I like having my coffee steaming next to me while I’m sitting in my comfiest chair with a laptop against my knees. An external keyboard only really makes sense for a desk. And I do have one, but actually enjoying the actual keyboard attached to my actual laptop is a love I have never known.
Interacting with this machine is a delight.
Now, for the software.
The OS. The bread and butter of any machine.
In my, arguably limited, experience, the software is just better. Everything I’ve tried runs quick and smooth. The transitions are seamless. The search function actually works. I can access any program, file, browser bookmarks, calendar events, or system settings directly from a keyboard shortcut that pulls up spotlight search. I get the results so fast its almost instant.
There are probably more individual pieces of software for Windows. But I would argue that the quality of the software on Mac is higher. I’m not referring to the built-in Pages and iMovie, although I’m sure they’re great, but all the great third-party apps and how well they integrate with the native OS.
This has been true for the iPad too, which I purchased after researching the best tablet to take notes as a student. It’s not the best because of the Apple Pencil, which I don’t even use, but the tremendous third-party note-taking apps that aren’t offered on other platforms. I love how seamless it is to write and then search notes. Highlighting is nice and easy to use. I can finally draw a straight line. If I accidentally write too large and run out of space on a line, I can just make the word smaller or pick it up and move to the line below. My messy scrawl can now be tamed and organized.
It is all the little things tied together that make life a little more enjoyable. If the center of my productivity system is more enjoyable to use, then I use it more. I want to sit down and write so I can touch this delightfully tactile machine. I want to write emails for work and read the notes from my class lectures. I can’t deny that my enjoyment may lie in the novelty of working with something new. Still, I love every interaction with this machine. And you may too.
