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Somewhat related: I always find myself clearing the drive in order to install the latest macOS. Perhaps psychological, but it always gives me a fresh starting

by KLVTZ 5y ago

Somewhat related: I always find myself clearing the drive in order to install the latest macOS. Perhaps psychological, but it always gives me a fresh starting point that is benefited by an implicit boost in performance. While it does require some time for setup, and much of what I do is manual, I never regret it --almost like spring cleaning.

mtmail 5y ago
I keep a file listing software I installed and my usual settings I need to set. Some 30 packages, including UI tools. The homebrew package installer supports a 'Brewfile' which will install everything in one step. https://thoughtbot.com/blog/brewfile-a-gemfile-but-for-homebrew https://thoughtbot.com/blog/brewfile-a-gemfile-but-for-homeb...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
mulmen 5y ago
Maybe I am getting old but I find “starting fresh” to be extremely expensive. I recently had to do this with my work MacBook which cannot restore from Time Machine for... reasons. I don’t know what settings I changed six months or a year or four years ago. I just know that my mouse should scroll that way, not this way. Time Machine makes sure these settings persist between disasters so I don’t generally try to track them. Historically upgrades maintained the settings where they make sense. Over time my environment adapted to my preference. But with the recent more drastic changes in Big Sur (and my fresh start) I find myself constantly having to re-learn really basic things like how to manage notifications. What used to be one click is three, or gestures that used to do one thing (drag right to dismiss) now do something unexpected (dismiss all notifications for an app). I don’t know how much of this is a setting and how much is just new behavior. It has been an infuriating experience. I don’t even know how to use my computer and I feel powerless. I also have very little motivation to learn the “new” way because I know it will just change again in a year. So the time I invest now will be wasted. It’s extremely demoralizing. One of the hardest things I do during the day is try to navigate my desktop environment. I have an adversarial relationship with my MacBook. There’s very little cognitive energy left to do my actual job. I don’t feel like it is improving, my computer is just in my way.
- D13Fd 5y ago
  Honestly that is kind of weird. I just re-imaged my Macbook Pro laptop this week, to completely remove some super invasive exam-taking software that I had to install for a licensing exam. The whole thing was very painless. I keep all of my data in one folder. I copied that folder, and copied some preferences for apps that don't sync to a folder (e.g., VS Code) to an external SSD. I booted into recovery mode, wiped the disk, and re-installed Mac OS. Then I copied my folder back and re-did my settings. The whole thing took a couple of hours, although a lot of that was babysitting the installs etc. while doing other things. I definitely wouldn't put it into the "extremely expensive" bucket in terms of time spent.
  - mulmen 5y ago
    The expense comes in having to re-learn basic actions or go find a setting. My job takes longer to perform now because I have to stop and re-learn simple things that used to be instinctive, such as dismissing notifications and looking at icons or changing the direction my mouse scrolls.
    - fossuser 5y ago
      This is very 'unhacker' advice, but I generally learn to love defaults. I also think a lot about sane defaults when working on/deploying software to customers myself. I choose what systems to use in part based on how good the defaults are. The closer you are to accepting defaults the easier your life is. Obviously there are exceptions, but things like mouse scroll direction? Just learn to love the new one.
      - Pokepokalypse 5y ago
        >This is very 'unhacker' advice, but I generally learn to love defaults There's a lot of wisdom in this advice: the more time you spend messing with settings to customize the UX; the less repeatable this configuration is, and the harder it is to get a new system back up and running. Also: what's "hacker" is working on many many different systems, and being able to at least minimally adapt to each different system's set of defaults, so you can remain productive. (and for me, this means absolutely forgetting all about one platform's take on hot-keys, shortcuts, and setting up aliases). Mouse-scroll direction? I can't abide the "reverse" (scroll down to go up), and that's one thing I'm not ever going to let slide on a new system.

by KLVTZ 5y ago

mtmail 5y ago

I keep a file listing software I installed and my usual settings I need to set. Some 30 packages, including UI tools. The homebrew package installer supports a 'Brewfile' which will install everything in one step. https://thoughtbot.com/blog/brewfile-a-gemfile-but-for-homebrew https://thoughtbot.com/blog/brewfile-a-gemfile-but-for-homeb...

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

mulmen 5y ago

Maybe I am getting old but I find “starting fresh” to be extremely expensive. I recently had to do this with my work MacBook which cannot restore from Time Machine for... reasons. I don’t know what settings I changed six months or a year or four years ago. I just know that my mouse should scroll that way, not this way. Time Machine makes sure these settings persist between disasters so I don’t generally try to track them. Historically upgrades maintained the settings where they make sense. Over time my environment adapted to my preference. But with the recent more drastic changes in Big Sur (and my fresh start) I find myself constantly having to re-learn really basic things like how to manage notifications. What used to be one click is three, or gestures that used to do one thing (drag right to dismiss) now do something unexpected (dismiss all notifications for an app). I don’t know how much of this is a setting and how much is just new behavior. It has been an infuriating experience. I don’t even know how to use my computer and I feel powerless. I also have very little motivation to learn the “new” way because I know it will just change again in a year. So the time I invest now will be wasted. It’s extremely demoralizing. One of the hardest things I do during the day is try to navigate my desktop environment. I have an adversarial relationship with my MacBook. There’s very little cognitive energy left to do my actual job. I don’t feel like it is improving, my computer is just in my way.

D13Fd 5y ago
Honestly that is kind of weird. I just re-imaged my Macbook Pro laptop this week, to completely remove some super invasive exam-taking software that I had to install for a licensing exam. The whole thing was very painless. I keep all of my data in one folder. I copied that folder, and copied some preferences for apps that don't sync to a folder (e.g., VS Code) to an external SSD. I booted into recovery mode, wiped the disk, and re-installed Mac OS. Then I copied my folder back and re-did my settings. The whole thing took a couple of hours, although a lot of that was babysitting the installs etc. while doing other things. I definitely wouldn't put it into the "extremely expensive" bucket in terms of time spent.
- mulmen 5y ago
  The expense comes in having to re-learn basic actions or go find a setting. My job takes longer to perform now because I have to stop and re-learn simple things that used to be instinctive, such as dismissing notifications and looking at icons or changing the direction my mouse scrolls.
  - fossuser 5y ago
    This is very 'unhacker' advice, but I generally learn to love defaults. I also think a lot about sane defaults when working on/deploying software to customers myself. I choose what systems to use in part based on how good the defaults are. The closer you are to accepting defaults the easier your life is. Obviously there are exceptions, but things like mouse scroll direction? Just learn to love the new one.
    - Pokepokalypse 5y ago
      >This is very 'unhacker' advice, but I generally learn to love defaults There's a lot of wisdom in this advice: the more time you spend messing with settings to customize the UX; the less repeatable this configuration is, and the harder it is to get a new system back up and running. Also: what's "hacker" is working on many many different systems, and being able to at least minimally adapt to each different system's set of defaults, so you can remain productive. (and for me, this means absolutely forgetting all about one platform's take on hot-keys, shortcuts, and setting up aliases). Mouse-scroll direction? I can't abide the "reverse" (scroll down to go up), and that's one thing I'm not ever going to let slide on a new system.