Everyone has different needs and different comfort levels, but one year determined my priorities.

I used to customize my computer; now I use default settings mostly, don’t even change wallpapers. The main goal: after switching devices, use it the same as the previous one, without dancing with a tambourine.

Also, I don’t see much difference between a MacBook on i7 and M4, although officially a x23 performance difference is stated. Not much is required for terminal and editor, plus browser and messenger. I don’t have many tabs open, I don’t keep them - attention only on what I’m doing. All other applications are closed to avoid distractions.

But two events that happened two months apart influenced my minimalism.

Once it was an ordinary day. At 11 AM I was at the daily standup while a siren of a passing fire truck was heard outside. Over time, the number of sirens increased and from the window I could already see aircraft extinguishing a forest fire in the distance. In a few hours, from “somewhere outside the city there’s a forest fire” to “need to evacuate” - several hours passed. Several planes were taking water from the local strait; shipping in the region stopped. And I watched from the window as tractors made trenches in front of the house, and firefighters made a barricade. Now I know that 700 meters is the distance from which you can see a wall of fire from a forest fire. And breathing becomes dangerous due to smoke. This means we should have left half an hour ago.

At that moment, we took only the essentials and evacuated. Mentally I said goodbye to everything that remained there and accepted that it no longer exists. The next morning, a photo of the residential complex where we lived was in local news - firefighters managed to divert the fire away. 350 meters remained, but it worked out.

For two months after, I looked at burned trees and remains of a private house in the distance. Then an earthquake happened in another part of the country. 20,000 dead. After reading on the internet that a tectonic plate passes near our city, and there were forecasts that tremors could repeat here, I was ready to drop everything and evacuate at any moment. Later I learned that earthquake predictions don’t exist, but at that moment it wasn’t so obvious. In general, it was not a fun month at all.

Since then, I choose light equipment to easily transport. In life, different things happen and I keep the thought that my equipment will lose in the choice of who to save - myself or the hardware. And after, to return to work I’ll have to buy new replacements. And this applies not only to such extreme situations - there are other negative scenarios. Therefore, yes, I like my tech, but I don’t have illusions and don’t get attached to it. The main requirement is meeting necessary needs, nothing extra. Hence the financial aspect - no point in overpaying if it’s a consumable tool.

With finances, I also have a couple of situations that determined my view on this, but I think that’s enough stories for today 😅