I Own Too Much Stuff...And You Do Too (Probably)

So on one of my recent patron podcasts, I talked about how I really, really, really want a Think pad. And I discussed this with myself, which is basically what those podcasts are, for about 15 minutes, trying to explain my thought process and trying to work through the whole wanting of the thing. Because I don't actually need a new laptop. I really don't. I have an HP laptop over here. I hardly ever use it. I don't test distros very much, and that's really all that thing's for. I should use it more often. I have aspirations of using it more often, but I don't. It just really collects dust and stickers. That's basically what it does. The funniest thing about that patron pod is that at the end of it, I made a realization. I already have a ThinkPad that I'd forgotten about. It's in the closet over yonder. It hasn't been used in a couple years. It's like a 14-inch something or the other. I don't even know what model it is. But it's good. It needs a new keyboard, but mostly it's perfectly functional. So I don't actually need a new ThinkPad, but I want one. And I talked about this in the podcast. But I've been thinking about it more since I recorded that. And it's led me to some, I wouldn't say startling revelations about my personal, you know, thought processes and stuff like that, but more just, it's led to some self-reflection because It's not just about Thinkpads, and I think that a lot of us nerds, you know, not even just Linux nerds, but, you know, actual nerds and geeks or whatever, have a problem. Like, if you have even the slightest bit of disposable income, you probably oftentimes spend it on technology. Maybe not always. Maybe you're not like me. That's fine. I mean, hopefully you're not. But one of the things that I've found, because I have been lucky enough to, at least in the past, earn enough money to buy things that I want, I tend to buy them on things that I don't actually need when it comes to tech. So there's a few examples of this. One of them, I'm a big phone guy, right? I like phones. So I have this phone, and I have this phone, and I have this phone. You know, I have this phone. I have I have issues. That's what I have. And yeah, I do sell some phones when I'm done with them. Sometimes I also hoard them like, you know, I have a whole stack here. So I don't actually need phones. You know, I could use this one until it dies and then move on to the one of the other ones that I have. But I don't I don't often do that. Another thing that I've done is monitors. So I posted about this a while ago. I talked about it on the podcast. I got two brand new 34 inch widescreen monitors. Fabulous. They're so good. Before this I had a 32 inch and an LG dual up. Now I have the widescreens and the LG DualUp all connected and the 32 inches over there for the monitor. So I have like five monitors on my desk or four monitors on my desk and it's great. But did I need them? No, I didn't need them. Now, it was really nice finally bumping up from 1080p to 1440p. That was really cool. But my eyes are, you know, 42-year-old eyes. They have... Problems seeing the difference between 1080p and 4k and I can't tell the difference between 1080p and 1440p either so I didn't actually need that bumping up in resolution and If anything has caused me a lot of problems because of how wide the screens are I've had to manipulate games So they'll actually show the whole width right so I didn't need them That was more money down the drain right and not only that but I had to buy stands for them and all this stuff, right? So, there's that. I also bought this light bar that goes above the monitors. Didn't need that. I have a... The funny thing is I bought these microphones. Little, like, lapel microphones. I haven't used these things yet. I want to. The documentation is crap, but that was another expenditure that I didn't really need. I have a Nintendo Switch over here that I've used for maybe a total of two hours total in the year that I've had it. The Steam Deck that I bought, that I've since sold to a friend, I didn't use it hardly at all. It just collected dust. I have issues when it comes to technology. I like technology a lot. And, I like to buy technology and hoard it a little bit. I have drawers and totes and stuff. Let's not even talk about keyboards, guys. The keyboard thing has gotten out of hand. I've done way better in the last year. I have my Dactyl and I'm very happy with it. I have no plans of getting another one. But, in the past, I've spent thousands of dollars on keyboards. And then just moved on from them. Like, willy-nilly, because I found something new and cool that I wanted. Part of this is a personality trait where I have obviously no willpower when it comes to technology, but I see this in lesser stages than a lot of other people who feel the need to always be up to date when it comes to tech or just get new shiny toys that they can play with. And it's not just a Linux thing, it's a... Or, uh... You know, a Macintosh thing or whatever that this basically anybody who is really interested in tech and considers it kind of a hobby, maybe they also make money on it as well, kind of like I do. But, you know, they you know, it's something that they're very interested in. They tend to overdo it. The thing that I've noticed a lot, actually, is that this habit has filtered down into the more general populace. Because this technology is so accessible for a lot of people, they can say, well, you know what, yeah, I have the iPhone 16, but man, that iPhone Duo looks really cool. Or until it breaks in half. Or I have a really cool Android phone, and it's fairly recent, and it still works really well, but man, those new Galaxy Folds look really cool, I want to get one. You don't actually need it. And that's one of the things that I need to learn for myself, and that's one of the reasons why I'm making this video, is because I... don't actually need anything. Like, I have all the tech that I could possibly want, there's nothing here. The thing is, like, even just today, just a few hours ago, before I made this video, I was on Instagram, because that's apparently one of the things that I do now. And one of the things that came up was this clicks keyboard thing that goes on the back of a phone, you know, back of a phone, and then it will slide down and give you an actual Oh, that's pretty cool. So I clicked on it. I was like, oh, man, if that'll work with my phone, I might get that. It's like $120. I don't type anything on my phone. I don't text very often. And when I do, it's just like one or two lines. I don't actually need a physical keyboard. And if I'm going to type anything more than that, I'm at my computer, or I can use the voice dictation or whatever from Google or whatever, right? So I don't actually need it. But, man, I saw it, and it looked cool. And that was just today. There was something else. Oh, I... I've talked about actually I've actually talked about this before I have a small addiction to phone cases in addition to my addiction to phones so I tend to buy a lot of phones I have you know I have the cases on this here and I have another case here and I have another case here you guys get that you guys get the point but and I have a whole tote of phone cases just over there for various different phones and there's a whole drawer over there that's that has different Different cases on it. I have. Obviously serious issues when it comes to this stuff, and it's exacerbated But one of the things that I need to learn I think a lot of people need to work to learn especially in the current economy Is that you just don't need? This stuff so one of the things I've been doing actually and this has led down to another whole rabbit hole I've been watching creators on YouTube who specialize in frugality and And... Pruning things out of their lives stuff and I found that stuff very interesting because a lot of them will just go around with trash bags and just pull stuff out of their houses and just throw it away and well, I'm not I'm not actually a hoarder like if you know, I know I know I know saying that after I showed you this whole pile of ---- is you know, a little bit ironic, but I'm not you know, I don't got like piles of junk anywhere. Everything's fairly neat and stuff except for the giant cords that are over there that I You know, the cable management still leaves a little bit to be desired, but overall, you know, I'm not actually a hoarder, but I do have a problem getting rid of tech. Like, I thought that I didn't, but apparently I do, given the fact that I have a stack of just stuff here that I could get rid of, and I don't have to, like, throw that stuff away. I could sell it. I can make some money off of it, and I'm going to, eventually. Actually, it's not like it would hurt me to get rid of any of this stuff. I'm not that. into the whole mindset of this this thing but it's still it's still a it's a mental process that i just have to get myself around because i don't need to keep buying stuff the from the videos that i've watched on youtube it seems like a lot of people go through a two stage process they'll be able to get rid of the stuff but then they just kind of buy more stuff to fill the spaces that they created and you kind of have to stop spending the money and stop bringing in stuff and get rid of the stuff that you don't need And then you're going, am I ever going to be a minimalist? No. But I still think that I can do a lot better. And I'm going to do a lot better. So I know this video had very little to do with Linux, but I kind of wanted to talk about this, because it's been something that I've been thinking about for a while. Not only just with that ThinkPad thing, but I've noticed it a lot of times I use buying something new just to kind of get the hit of having something new, something new and shiny. And I need to stop that, because that wears off really, really fast. So, anyways, that's just a small ramble for this video. If you guys have any thoughts on this, you can leave those in the comment section below. I'd really like to hear from you guys. The channel is on life support, as is right now, because of YouTube and its algorithms and the way they're doing views and stuff like that. So, if you can leave a comment or a like or both... I'd really appreciate it. If you haven't subscribed, hit the subscribe button. I'd really appreciate it. You can follow me on Mastodon or Odyssey. Those links will be in the video description. On Mastodon, I just basically shitpost. So if you're interested in just hearing more from me, Mastodon would be a great place to do that. I'm also on Blue Sky. 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